Keep Your Mouth Shut
by dead last hero
Summary: In Kaiba's opinion, most things are better left unsaid. Especially the things that come out of Joey's mouth. One bet and one week may prove him wrong. implied KaibaxJoey
1. Day Zero

DAY ZERO

"And that's when I punched him right in the face!" Joey triumphantly exclaimed. He was perched on his desk, adamantly telling Tristan about some squabble he had been in a while back.

"Do any of your stories NOT end with "and then I punched him"?" Tristan asked, looking rather skeptical.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Joey replied. "What's a story if it ain't got a whole lot of violence?"

"Quiet, mutt. Some of us are trying to concentrate," Kaiba's voice invaded Joey's story time.

"Concentrate on what? Whatcha reading? A romance novel?" Joey pointed at the book that Kaiba held in his hands.

"I sure would like to know when our study material suddenly became a romance novel," Kaiba replied, not looking up from his book.

"Ohhh, you think you're so smart," Joey slid partway off his desk, ready to clobber Kaiba should the need arise.

"Indeed," Kaiba replied.

Joey kept on. "Guess someone as boring as you doesn't have anything better to do."

Kaiba looked up from his book. "Not all of us can spend our spare time shooting our mouths off about our stray dogfights."

"You wanna try sayin' that again?" Joey gritted his teeth and slid all the way off his desk.

"No. I know when to keep my mouth shut, unlike certain people that are below me," Kaiba informed him.

Joey approached Kaiba and sat up on his desk, disturbing his papers and interrupting his reading. "Care to explain what you mean by that?"

Kaiba glared up at him. "Your mouth is constantly running, Wheeler. If your very existence wasn't a waste of my time, I might consider purchasing you a muzzle to stop your incessant jabbering."

Joey loomed over Kaiba best he could. "WHAT?!" he yelled at him.

"Down, mutt," Kaiba replied, no waiver in his expression. "Its impossible to get anything done with such a racket." He turned back to his book.

Joey hopped off Kaiba's desk, making sure to knock at least a few of his belongings onto the floor.

"You do talk a lot, Joey," Tea interjected into the conversation from a few desks away where she was playing duel monsters with Yugi.

"What?!" Joey yelled, infuriated. "You're takin' his side, Tea?"

Tea simply shrugged.

Tristan sat back down in his own desk. "You'd never be able to give anyone the silent treatment, that's for sure. Our first grade class used to get in trouble for being rowdy in the library, but really Joey was just being loud most of the time," Tristan pointed out.

Joey perched on his desk with a huff. "Thanks for all the support, you guys," he said sarcastically. "And I could keep quiet if I wanted to. But who would?"

"Don't fool yourself, Wheeler. You couldn't keep your mouth shut for an entire hour," Kaiba said.

Joey stuck his nose in the air. "Course I could. For a whole day if I had to."

Kaiba didn't look up from his book. "I highly doubt it," he replied.

Joey slammed his palms on Kaiba's desk, knocking off what was left of the boy's schoolwork. "I'll do it for a WEEK," he shouted.

Kaiba lowered his book. "Very funny, Wheeler. If you could conceivably stay silent for a week, I would permit you to be as loud as you wanted at any time." There was nothing on the planet that could keep Joey silent for an entire week. But oh, that would be the best week ever.

"AND you would pay me five hundred bucks, and let me have free reign on your house for a whole week," Joey demanded. A mansion for a week? How sweet would that be?

"Whatever you say, Wheeler." Kaiba replied, going back to his book. "You can begin Monday when school starts." Shoot, Kaiba probably would have agreed to any of Joey's terms, seeing as how in his mind, he didn't have a shred of confidence that Joey could stay silent for an entire week.


	2. Day One

-1DAY ONE: Monday

Joey arrived at school the next day absolutely ready to win Kaiba's bet. He wasn't exactly prepared for what Kaiba had in mind for him.

"Alright mister tough guy, you got another thing comin'." Joey said, as Kaiba waltzed in through the door.

"Why do I hear your mouth, Wheeler?" Kaiba asked, annoyed.

Joey pointed to the clock. "School ain't started yet, smarty pants."

Kaiba placed his briefcase on his desk and opened it carefully. "I'll be taking precautions to make sure that I am entirely the victor of this pointless bet," Kaiba informed him.

"There's rules to this thing? Alright, I can play along."

Kaiba pulled out a small pendant on a chord and switched it on until the little green light was blinking. It looked suspiciously like a dog tag. He draped it around Joey's neck .

"What's this thing?" Joey asked, examining it.

Kaiba sat down at his desk with a smirk. "This device will record every noise you make, down to a whisper. So I will know if you cheat. I will also know if you remove it or dismantle it. I will change the media card for you every day."

Wow, Kaiba was going all out. He glared at Joey. "I'll know if you say a single word, mutt."

Joey frowned slightly. He scratched his head kind of awkwardly. Kaiba narrowed his eyebrows. "Want to back out now while you still can?"

Joey made a face. "No, but I talk in my sleep. And what about noises? Laughing, grunting, snoring, burping…." he pointed out.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "It's rather easy to tell the difference between sleep talking and regular speech," Kaiba informed him. "I'm only outlawing words. Even dogs grunt and snore."

Joey climbed up on his desk. "Alright! I'm takin' you down Kaiba!" he called out, dramatically pointing downwards at the rich teenager.

Kaiba and Joey watched the clock, paying close attention to the seconds in which Joey would begin his week of silence.

"Have fun, dogboy. When I win," Kaiba paused, waiting for the minute to turn over. "You'll be my personal servant for an entire week."

Joey opened his mouth to protest, and Kaiba pointed at the clock. Joey made a horrible face, and attempted to strangle Kaiba, but instead fell off his desk and knocked it over.

Joey was silent for the first half of the day. Kaiba admitted that he enjoyed it immensely. He intended to simply enjoy his week of peace and quiet, yet couldn't help being slightly interested in how Joey would handle situations in which he usually just ran his mouth.

One such situation came in the cafeteria. Kaiba didn't eat lunch in the cafeteria usually, but he made a point to pass through at least. He spotted Joey at the counter, motioning frantically to what he wanted for lunch, and the lunch lady looking completely confused.

"Having trouble, mutt?" Kaiba asked as he passed by. Joey made a face at him and shook his fist.

"I think he wants a cheeseburger," Yugi told the lunch lady. Joey became teary-eyed and grabbed Yugi in a fierce hug, during which Yugi ceased breathing for several seconds.

Back in the classroom, Kaiba kept watch of Joey out of the corner of his eye. When the teacher called on him, and he simply shook his head. Kaiba assumed the annoying kid was done for.

"Joey, please answer the question," the teacher urged him. "It isn't fair to the other students, and I'll have to take away all your participation points for today."

Kaiba laughed to himself. All his points taken away for a whole week? Joey's grade would plummet significantly. This would teach him to make a bet with Seto Kaiba.

To his surprise, Joey dug something out of his pocket. It was a card, roughly the size of a duel monsters card. He held it up in the air, and the teacher came to collect it. She looked the card over and placed it in her pocket. "Sorry, Joey. Don't worry about the participation points this week then." She smiled at him and patted his head. "Such a good young man."

Joey could tell that Kaiba was looking irritated out of the corner of his eye. Joey casually passed him a card with a smirk.

Kaiba turned the card over and read it. _This week I, Joey Wheeler, have taken a vow of silence in order to ponder on the unfortunate children in the world. Any donations to this cause will go straight to the Children's School for the Blind and Hearing impaired._

Kaiba looked over at Joey. That LIAR! He was absolutely lying through his teeth! Well, not literally, but UGH! Kaiba ripped up the card and the pieces fluttered to the floor.


	3. Day Two

-1DAY TWO: Tuesday

It was true that Kaiba desired to enjoy his week of peace, but seeing Joey's stupid grin the next morning made him significantly irritated. Joey approached him and pointed to his dog tag necklace where Kaiba was recording his life.

Kaiba grunted, switched the media card, and Joey practically skipped away. That would be the moment that Kaiba decided he would rain absolute doom upon Joey's life for the next six days.

"Joey, I know you aren't speaking, but could you come write your answer on the board?" the teacher asked.

Kaiba immediately snatched Joey's paper. "Please, Teacher. Don't make Wheeler overexert himself during his vow for the sake of the children. He should concentrate on their well being. Allow me to express what he's written."

Joey moved his mouth to protest, yet obviously he couldn't make any noise. Kaiba cleared his throat.

"The question is: If I were to be an animal, what animal would it be?" Joey tried to take a shot at Kaiba's leg with his foot. Kaiba dodged him smoothly by leaning against his desk.

"I would be a dog. A dog has about the brain capacity that I do on a regular basis. When no one is watching, I like to slurp my soup, among other things. I think being a dog would be great, because I wouldn't have to decide what to eat, and no one would give me strange looks for slobbering all over myself. I could roll in dirt and only bathe occasionally and smell like I'm always wet. Yes, being a dog would be fantastic."

Kaiba handed Joey back his paper, on which actually read "Question: What kind of food would you be? Answer: Cereal because its diverse."

Joey crumpled up his paper and the entire class snickered under their breath. The teacher awkwardly moved on to the next student. Joey's mouth formed words, but to Kaiba's utter joy, no sound came out.

Joey pulled out a piece of notebook paper and scribbled on it furiously. He shoved it in Kaiba's direction. "_What do you think you're doing?"_

Kaiba smirked and crumpled the paper up, with no response.

During lunch, Kaiba waltzed into the cafeteria gladly. He slid into line next to Joey, intentionally bumping into him. "Oh hello, Wheeler, didn't see you there."

Joey frowned deeply.

"Hey Kaiba, are you going to have lunch with us?" Yugi asked cheerfully. Kaiba spotted Tea and Tristan standing nearby. He made a face.

"What'll it be, kid?" the fat old lunch lady asked. Joey raised his hand and pointed.

"Which? The vegetarian?" the lady asked. Joey shook his head.

"He's fasting," Kaiba informed the lady. Joey formed the word "WHAT?!" with his lips. Kaiba nodded at the lady's funny look. "Yes, for the deaf and blind children, isn't that right, Wheeler?" Kaiba took his arm and lead him kicking (and screaming, if he could have) away from the lunch line. He plopped him into a seat and patted his shoulder.

Kaiba popped open his briefcase and pulled out a cylindrical object. "Here, I brought you lunch, mutt." He placed a can of dog food down in front of Joey. "It has all your vitamins and minerals, too. Eat up." Kaiba cackled like the insanely rich teenager he was as he exited the cafeteria.

Yugi, Tea, and Tristan came up a moment later. Yugi pasted a worried look on his face. "You okay, Joey? Your face is kinda red…"

Joey looked like he was ready to explode, clutching the can of Alpo in his furious hands. He fully intended to absolutely hurl it at Kaiba the moment the snobby rich kid's back was turned.

"_I hope it hits him in his stupid FACE!"_ Joey raged internally.

Joey sought out Kaiba after school. Since he couldn't do the usual and just yell "Hey, moneybags!" across the hall, he pushed past some students and grabbed the can of Alpo out of his bag. Once he had a clear shot, he wound up and threw it as hard as he could at the back of Kaiba's head. Joey waited with anticipation for the violence that was to ensue.

To his misery, one of the teachers called out to Kaiba and he turned just in time to block the flying dog food can with his briefcase. Joey stomped over furiously as Kaiba inspected the damage done to his precious briefcase.

"Did you want something, Wheeler? There are more efficient ways of getting my attention than throwing things at me."

Joey rolled his eyes and pointed to his necklace.

"Yes? What about it?" Kaiba asked.

Joey mimed like he was turning a dial, and made a motion with his hand like something was spraying onto his head. He rubbed his hair and his arms and pointed to the dog tag again.

Kaiba made an annoyed face at how stupid Joey looked. "Yes, you can take a shower. Its waterproof, see?" He promptly pulled a water pistol out from his coat and aimed it at Joey's chest, soaking the dog tag along with Joey's shirt. It didn't seem to explode or malfunction. Joey bared his teeth and stomped, pointing furiously at the water pistol as if to say _"Where the hell did you get that thing?"_

Kaiba smirked. "I read that if dogs are misbehaving, you should squirt them in the face with water." He proceeded to do so on Joey. "There. Now you look like you smell. A wet dog." He laughed to himself as he stalked off. Joey attempted after him, but slipped on the puddle made by Kaiba's pistol and fell flat on his face.

Kaiba stalked into his office and plopped down in his chair. He had bunches of paperwork and other corporate types of things to deal with, including a note that told him that some punk kids had spray painted an "F" between the "K" and "C" in the KaibaCorp logo. But never mind those. He pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and booted it up, drawing the media card out from his pocket that Joey's first 24 hours of supposed silence was recorded on.

He popped it into his computer and ran a voice recognition program. He prompted the program to delete all recording on the file that was not someone's voice. Kaiba ran the recording of Joey's voice when he first received the necklace, and told the computer to extract only the times in which Joey's voice was recognized. To his delight, he discovered that the recording device picked up the voices of anyone in relatively close proximity to Joey as well. He ran each of the geek squad through the recognition process.

Kaiba now had several separate files. He opened Joey's and pushed play, sitting back in his chair to wait for his victory.

To Kaiba's disappointment, ninety percent of the file was Joey making various noises. Laughing, grunting, humming. Finally, some words drifted out from the speakers. They were broken and mostly incomprehensible.

"_Nnnn….big…pizza….pepperoni, please. Nnnnn……NO! No more homework! Stoooooop……Yugi…..get him. You can do it Yugi…..stab him with your hair! I SUMMON BIG PIZZA CARD!!! Mmmmmnnnn…."_

…was about the gist of Joey's talking. It was so obvious he was sleep talking that Kaiba didn't even bother.

Kaiba could care less about what Tea, Tristan or Bakura had said to Joey all day. He opened Yugi's file and played it in the background as he started to sift through his paperwork. Mostly it was Yugi going on about something completely unimportant to anyone's life, or about duel monsters, or what they were having for lunch, or more about duel monsters, or about his ancient Egypt weird sorcery mumbo jumbo. Kaiba tuned back in at the mention of his name.

"I'd been meaning to ask, Joey. Why did you agree to this silly thing with Kaiba? I wish I had been paying attention, I would have stopped you. You're too reckless. What if something comes up?" There was a pause in which Kaiba assumed Joey was trying to communicate with him. "Don't you think you went a little overboard?" Pause. "Aren't you concerned what Kaiba will make you do?" Pause. "I'm not doubting you, I think you can win." Pause. "Okay. If you say so."

Kaiba smirked and shuffled through his papers. So, even Yugi didn't think that Joey could pull off a week of silence. Joey didn't have a thread of self control, he was amazed that Joey survived his first day. Kaiba briefly cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the hell he would make Joey's life tomorrow.


	4. Day Three

-1DAY THREE: Wednesday

Joey stormed into the classroom, absolutely furious. He positively slammed his book bag onto his desk and sat down, slightly pink in the cheeks and crossed his arms. Tristan backed off, and looked at Tea, who put her hands up. Yugi sighed and approached cautiously.

"Hey Joey. You okay?" he asked, seating himself in the empty desk in front of Joey. Joey unfolded his arms and slammed his fists on the desk, making Yugi jump. His head dropped onto the desk and didn't move. Yugi very slowly put his hand on his shoulder. "What's up, Joey?"

Joey let out a frustrated growl and flipped open his notebook. Tea and Tristan also sheepishly approached. Joey began scribbling furiously with a sharpie all over the notebook. When he was finished, he thrust it at Yugi.

Yugi took the notebook and quietly read it aloud so Tea and Tristan could hear.

"I had a run in with my Dad this morning because he thought I was giving him the silent treatment. Then Serenity called last night and I couldn't TALK to her, but she thought that I WOULDN'T talk to her! What if she thinks I'm mad at her?"

Kaiba had been eavesdropping from a few seats away. "Having difficulties, mutt?" he asked casually.

Joey got out of his seat, knocking his desk over. He picked up his notebook and scribbled something on it, wadding it into a ball and throwing it at Kaiba as hard as he could. Being a wad of paper, Kaiba easily caught it and smoothed it out on his desk.

"_I WILL WIN EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL YOU!!"_

Kaiba scrunched the paper back up and tossed it neatly into the classroom wastebasket. "I'd like to see you try."

Joey was very eager to do so. He picked up their mathematics textbook and started over to where Kaiba sat, absolute murder in his eyes.

Several things happened at once. Tea covered her mouth and cried "No, Joey!" Tristan leapt from his desk and tried to intercept the blonde before he dealt Kaiba some serious damage. Yugi grabbed around Joey's middle and was dragged to the ground in seconds yelling "Stop, Joey!" Joey lost his balance and flung the book, pelting Tristan in the head. Joey pitched forward, his head hitting Kaiba's desk and rolling off onto the CEO's leg. There it rested as Joey saw stars burst in front of his eyes.

Kaiba sat calmly at his desk, fully aware that there really was no way that Joey would succeed in hitting him with the text book. He looked down at Joey's head resting on his leg and made a face. When Joey didn't move, Kaiba tapped him on the head. "Get off, mutt. You aren't a lap dog."

Kaiba felt a shiver shoot through his entire body as Joey roughly grabbed Kaiba's ankle and yanked his pant leg up, running his hand all the way up Kaiba's calf. Kaiba was between shocked and disgusted. "What do you think you're doing?!" he exclaimed, trying to get out of Joey's grasp. Joey stuck his sharpie in his mouth and popped the cap off. Kaiba pulled at his leg, refusing to panic. "Let go Wheeler!" he demanded. He jumped slightly at the feeling of the fuzzy felt pen scraping across his skin.

"Teacher!" Tea squeaked, scrambling to her desk. Joey crawled on the floor back to his desk where he sat, feeling slightly more satisfied. Kaiba shook his foot lightly to re-adjust his pant leg. He could feel the ink drying on his skin. Kaiba wouldn't freak, he wouldn't change his expression, and he absolutely would NOT bend over to see what the moron had done to his leg until he was a hundred percent sure that he was in a private place with no one watching.

Joey forgot about the incident a few minutes later, but Kaiba did not. All class period he swore he could feel the ink on his leg. It itched, and he wanted to twitch, and rub his leg, and wash it. He remembered the sensation of Joey's hand shooting up his leg and used all his might to suppress the urge to shudder uncontrollably.

Kaiba didn't dare to degrade himself to using the public bathroom at the school. He showed no outward signs of the outrage he felt by the defiling of his bodypart. He was confident that no one could tell there was anything written on his skin.

Joey had wisely brought his own lunch today, so as Kaiba passed through the cafeteria, he couldn't disrupt him. His bad mood had left him with no desire to do so anyway. Joey spotted Kaiba pass through and almost called out to him, but instead pulled out his notebook and scribbled as fast as he could. He tugged on a girl that was passing by and handed her the note, pointing at Kaiba. She misunderstood and blushed in an "Aw, how cute!" fashion, which made Joey turn red with indignation. She delivered the note anyhow to the glaring Kaiba.

Kaiba unfolded the note and stared at it. He felt the sudden urge to swing his briefcase at Joey's head. Kaiba glared in said boy's direction, who simply waved with a grin on his face.

Kaiba crushed in his fist, the note reading: "_Hope you brought your PE shorts. Its Wednesday!"_

Kaiba weighed his options. He had forgotten that it was PE day today. There was no way we would lose the participation points for being out of uniform. That was out of the question. Kaiba decided to suck it up and enter the public bathroom. He chose one that was further from the lunch area and locked the door once he was sure the bathroom was empty. He hoisted his leg up onto the sink and prepared himself, pulling up his pant leg.

"_Joey owns Kaiba's ass"_

Kaiba dropped his pant leg in horror. He lifted it up, just to make sure he hadn't hallucinated. "No one-" he fumed, teeth clenched, "and I mean NO ONE owns all or any part of my-" he leaned in closer and saw that Joey had started to write something after that, but must have been interrupted by the teacher at this point. Taking a deep breath, Kaiba got some paper towels wet and started to scrub at his leg. After a moment, he realized that it was absolutely no use. In fact, now his leg looked slightly rashy, even worse.

Kaiba took another deep breath and gave up trying to wash the felt marker off. He rummaged in his briefcase and found his own black sharpie. Popping the cap off, he smirked and started his damage control.

Joey waited, arms folded across his chest, for Kaiba to emerge from the locker room. He had a broad grin on his face, ready for the world to laugh its face off at Seto Kaiba, and congratulate Joey Wheeler on his greatness.

"What DID you write on his leg, Joey?" Tristan asked. Joey mimed the sentence well enough for Tristan to guess.

"Joey…owns…Kaiba's…ass?" he said. Tea turned slightly red. "Owns his ass at what?" Joey stopped mid-mime. He adopted an _"Oh, oops. Crap." _look on his face.

One could practically see the giant sweat drop over Yugi's head. "You…didn't finish writing the sentence?" he guessed. Joey looked like he wanted to die.

"Yeah. That girl in the cafeteria already thinks you're trying to seduce Kaiba by sending love notes. This is gonna be even worse," Tristan pointed out. Joey tried to casually bolt out the door, but Tristan stopped him.

Tea squeaked and pointed to the locker room exit where Kaiba was currently emerging. He walked out as if nothing was off and stood in his regular corner as he regularly did. All was quiet as Tea, Tristan, Yugi, and Joey held their breath. "I don't see anything," Tea whispered.

Duke Devlin exited the locker room shortly after. Kaiba's leg caught his attention. "Hey, when did you get a tattoo?" he asked, pointing. Kaiba turned slightly, and Joey practically dropped to the ground.

There was a giant Blue Eyes White Dragon snaking up Kaiba's leg.

"Woah!" Another kid said, trotting over. "Wicked, Kaiba. Did you draw it?"

Kaiba nodded sharply. "Spare me your gawking," he said. He stalked in Joey's direction. Joey hid behind Yugi as best he could.

"Nice cover, Kaiba." Yugi said, having a look. At his height he was the closest to Kaiba's leg. "You can't even tell there used to be words."

"Speaking of words," Kaiba brought up. "What exactly are your delusions about the ownership of any part of my body, Wheeler?"

Joey turned his back on Kaiba, partially to ignore him, and partially to hide the redness of his face. Kaiba smirked in his normal fashion and stalked off in a triumphant manner.

Back at Kaiba Corp, the CEO poured himself some nasty black coffee and sat down behind his obscenely large desk to make sure Joey hadn't failed. He was again disappointed at Joey's persistence.

"Nehhhh….lets duel! To the death! For this mountain of donuts! …..Whaaaaa? Whats this? The Millennium Sneaker?…….WHAAA! ZOMBIES!!! NOOOOO! This thing weighs a ton! I can't run with this thing on! Tristan! Save meeeeeee!!! I said save me! Tristan! Can't you hear me?" There was a gargled noise afterwards and Joey became quiet.

Kaiba frowned. Joey's interactive imagination made his eye twitch slightly. Kaiba concluded that Joey's brain may be made entirely of marshmallow sauce.


	5. Day Four

-1DAY FOUR: Thursday

Joey was confronted by a blushing girl as he entered the classroom. She shuffled her feet a bit and wouldn't look him in the face. Joey pasted on a very confused look.

"Um…Good morning Joey. I…I have a note for you," she said sheepishly.

Joey lifted an eyebrow as she handed him the note. He briefly recognized her as the girl he employed to deliver a note to Kaiba in the cafeteria the other day.

"Its from Kaiba. He gave it to me this morning to give to you," she shuffled off shyly and Joey's mouth gaped, unable to explain the misunderstanding.

Joey unfolded it. It read, _"I won't be attending school today as I have an important board meeting at the office. Come by KaibaCorp after school to get your new media card. Show your student ID at the front desk. Don't be late or you forfeit the bet."_

Joey crumpled up the note and threw it away. At least he could have a peaceful school day. He was even able to play duel monsters with Yugi at lunch using various hand signals to indicate his moves.

After school, Joey caught the bus to the KaibaCorp building. The last thing he really wanted to do was have to go inside Kaiba's undisputed territory. It was bad enough when he acted like he owned the whole class, but walking into a building that he ACTUALLY owned? Joey felt like he was entering the domain of the underworld.

Joey felt highly underdressed entering the large glass doors of KaibaCorp. Women and men in suits darted here and there. Most of the women younger than fifty were dressed rather slutty, and the men wore ties so plain and tight, Joey pulled at his own collar for good measure.

Joey sought out this mysterious "front desk". It turned out to be the place where a moderate to heavy amount of people were waiting silently in line to approach. Joey got to the end of the line and rolled his eyes. _"This is just like moneybags, makin' me come to his stupid company and wait in a long freaking line to see him."_

The ladies in front of him were chattering incessantly. "I'm so excited we got these jobs!" one of them said. "Right! I am so ready to climb up the corporate ladder," the other one expressed. "No matter what I have to do." She blatantly adjusted her chest to show more cleavage. Not that Joey minded. "I heard the bosses are pretty easy to please," the other woman expressed, checking to make sure her skirt was short enough, "And the CEO is really a BIG deal, if you know what I mean." They both giggled and Joey covered his ears. _"Don't listen, don't listen, don't listen," _he told himself.

After forty minutes of waiting in line, he presented his student ID to the woman at the desk. "Oh," she said. "You're here to see Mister Kaiba. Hmmm….Please proceed to the fourth floor to Public Relations. Have a nice day!" Joey walked off slightly confused. Why couldn't he just go up to Kaiba's office? Apparently he didn't know much about the inner workings of a multi-million dollar company.

Joey proceeded to the place the woman indicated. He waited in another waiting room with about half the amount of people. There was another group of women clutching their designer purses sitting across from him as he flipped through an old issue of Card Games Weekly.

"Ohmigosh Mariah! Today I got to bring paperwork to Miss Yamamoto's desk!" she squirmed, "Oh, what I wouldn't give to have the CEO receptionist job!" She leaned closer to her girlfriends. "I heard she works late nights," she whispered.

Another of the ladies giggled. "I heard that the CEO's desk is HUGE. AND that he has a couch in his office." They erupted into fits of giggles. Joey tried to hum a tune to not overhear the other big things that Kaiba apparently had, and which pieces of his furniture (and clothing) were probably leather.

Once Joey approached the Public Relations desk, he was re-directed to the director of some other people. This director frowned at him and sent him to another waiting room on the fourteenth floor. The woman at that desk asked him why he wasn't at the Administration Department. Joey rode the elevator up eight more floors. The Administration Department shuffled through a bunch of papers and files, then faxed and called a few people, before escorting Joey to the office of the Board of Directors.

"_I swear if I have to wait another hour in another department where all the skanky business women are talking about what Kaiba eats for breakfast I'm gonna throw myself off the roof of the building. How many floors does this stupid place have, anyway?"_

Trudging onto the 37th floor, he went into another waiting room. Only about ten people were waiting here, and he immediately showed his ID to the receptionist. She giggled in an understanding manner and told him to go up one more floor to the executive offices.

Joey felt like tearing his hair out as he sat down in the waiting room marked "CEO". The first thing he would do is punch Kaiba for warning him not to be late, yet making him run all around his stupid company for FOUR HOURS. There was only one woman in this waiting room. Another woman entered the room looking all flustered. "You were right," she said as her friend stood to meet her and they began to leave. "He's like walking sex. And he had the biggest-" Joey felt queasy and considered running headlong for the exit.

"Mister Kaiba will see you now, Mister Wheeler," the receptionist called out, motioning towards the door that the blushing woman had just left. Joey pushed up his sleeves and stomped noisily through the door and down the hall.

Joey stopped at the only office in the hallway, marked "Seto Kaiba CEO" on the door. Joey's hand hesitated over the doorknob. The letters CEO glared at him, trying to demand his respect. He knocked instead of flinging it open and stomping in as he had previously planned.

"Its open," Kaiba's voice informed him.

Joey entered the office and shut the door behind him. His eyes immediately wandered around the room. He spotted the rumored leather couch (it actually was decently big). Along with some bookshelves, and a flat screen TV on the wall. A few other pieces of furniture were scattered about the room as well.

The large desk dominated the center, laden with electronic dohickies, and technology whats-its. Kaiba sat calmly in his tall, high-backed chair, illuminated by the sunset blazing through the ceiling to floor windows that made up the back wall of his office. Joey rubbed his eye, feeling like he'd accidentally walked into the throne room of the King of Domino. Well, Kaiba certainly captured the desired effect; Joey admitted he was a little intimidated.

Kaiba rose from his seat as Joey approached him and stopped in front of his desk somewhat awkwardly. Kaiba made a face at him. "Sit boy," he said. Joey promptly sat down, then mentally kicked himself for being so obedient. Kaiba smirked.

Kaiba pushed a button on a little speaker box he had on his desk. "No more appointments or unscheduled meetings today, Miss Yamamoto." he said into it. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it onto the couch.

"Forgive me for not being at school today to torture you, Wheeler," Kaiba said, loosening his tie just a little. Joey waved his hand in dismissal, watching Kaiba closely, only having seen him in a real suit on a few occasions. For the second time he felt slightly underdressed.

Kaiba folded his arms and stood next to his chair, gazing out the window. Joey pulled out his notebook and sharpie and started to scribble something on it.

"Is this how you're communicating with people?" Kaiba asked, coming to stand behind him and look over his shoulder.

"_Your company sucks. I waited FOUR HOURS to get up here. Every person I talked to was a freaking idiot." _Kaiba read off his notebook. "I know," he replied. Joey heavily underlined _"FOUR HOURS" _and held it up to Kaiba's face angrily.

"Did you enjoy your tour of the building?" Kaiba asked, as if he had planned it all along. Joey grabbed Kaiba's tie and yanked on it. He very carefully mouthed the words _"SCREW YOU, KAIBA."_

Kaiba grabbed hold of Joey's wrist. "You aren't the only person who's proposed this idea to me today," he said. Kaiba kindly twisted Joey's wrist until he was forced to let go. Joey took off the necklace and threw it at him, turning back to his paper. Kaiba collected it from the floor before he received Joey's note angrily thrown onto his desk.

"_Listen to that! What is wrong with the people that work here?"_

Kaiba gave him a funny look, popped the sound card into his computer, and started playing the last several hours of sound. He somehow listened with a straight face. "I wasn't aware these kind of rumors were getting around," he commented.

Joey threw another piece of paper at him. _"I wasn't aware how much YOU are apparently getting around. You're a nasty whore."_

Kaiba stood up abruptly. "Care to repeat that, Wheeler?"

Joey made a rather vulgar motion with his hands. Kaiba started walking around the desk to come kill him.

Joey shoved the notebook in his face. _"Why does every woman that works for you want to get in bed with you? Don't you realize how nasty that makes you?"_

"He's like walking sex," came the lady's voice over the speaker.

"Well, there's your answer," Kaiba replied, reaching out his hand and hitting Joey upside the head.

Joey jumped up and attempted to put Kaiba into a headlock, but was quickly deflected onto the couch. Joey was persistent and wouldn't let Kaiba take him down without retaliation, thus he tackled Kaiba around the legs and managed to eventually wrestle him to the ground. Joey sat on Kaiba's hips, pinning his arms down. He'd never been able to best Kaiba in a shouting match, and Kaiba had never really given him a chance to get into a proper fistfight with him, so it came as a bit of a surprise that he had now pinned the boy on the floor. He wondered briefly if Kaiba had allowed him to win, and why he would do that.

"Satisfied your violent urges yet?" Kaiba asked, pulling at his arm in a vague to attempt to break free. Joey shook his head.

The speaker box on Kaiba's desk beeped. "Mokuba has just been seen entering the building," Miss Yamamoto informed him.

Kaiba glared. "Are you going to get off?"

Joey shook his head. He assumed that it would probably take Mokuba almost as long to get up to the office as it had taken him.

"Enjoying yourself?" Kaiba asked, one eyebrow slightly raised. Joey bared his teeth and raised his fist. Kaiba took the advantage of his free arm to grab Joey's shoulder and shove him off. He immediately rolled over and pinned Joey on the ground in the same position he had previously been in. Joey squirmed.

The office door flung open and Mokuba trudged in, dragging his backpack behind him. He stopped right inside the doorway and kind of stared. "I can come back later if you're busy," he said.

Kaiba glared at him. Joey stared wide-eyed at Mokuba, and proceeded to thrash violently and toss his head from side to side.

"He's infuriated that you arrived in my office so quickly," Kaiba enlightened Mokuba.

Mokuba shrugged. "You just take a service elevator up to the 37th floor. It lets you out at the other end of the hall," he pointed out. Joey thrashed some more. "You know, it'd be more comfortable for Joey if you did that sort of thing on the couch, Seto," Mokuba pointed out.

Joey made a horrified face and Kaiba glared at Mokuba. "I'm hardly interested in his comfort," he responded.

Mokuba tapped his chin and looked up at the ceiling. "Oh right. I heard yesterday in the beta testing break room that you liked it rough."

Kaiba's mouth dropped open slightly and his face just barely turned pink. Mokuba continued to tap his chin. "I also heard that you liked to sing opera in the shower. I'm pretty sure that ones not true, though. You don't even know any opera songs." He looked back at his brother's face. "What?"

Joey burst out laughing. He laughed as loudly as he could, since it was one of the noises he was allowed to make. Kaiba glared fiercely at him and at Mokuba, who merely grinned back.

Kaiba couldn't stay mad at that face. He could, however, stay mad at Joey's face. He turned back to his captive and socked him in the eye before standing up and brushing himself off, as if sitting on Joey had made him dirty in some way.

Joey kind of rolled around on the floor, clutching his face. He sat up and made a whimpering noise. Mokuba squatted down next to him. "Want me to get you some ice?" Joey nodded and Mokuba ran out the door. He was back in a minute with a cold pack.

Mokuba drug his backpack over to the couch and sat down. "Seto, I got an A on my math test," he said.

"Good for you Mokuba," Kaiba said, seating himself back at his desk. He started clicking around as Joey pulled himself off the floor. "Would you like to hear what Wheeler was dreaming about last night?"

Joey waved his hands in protest. "Sure!" Mokuba replied, looking rather interested.

Joey's muffled voice came out of the speakers.

"Ughhhh…..stop. Stop, I don't like it. Nooooo its permanent! Permanent marker! STOP! Stop with the eyeliner! I told you, I'm not Egyptian! I said it! Hello? Hello?!" There was a lot of thrashing. "Kaiba? Kaiba? The Blue Eyes White Dragon…its tattooed on your face! Noooo! Its permanent! I don't want a Kuriboh tattooed on me! I said no! Isn't anyone listening?!?!"

Joey scratched his head and looked around the room, trying to ignore Mokuba's laughter.

"Hey Seto, can we go get ice cream?!" Mokuba said excitedly. He hoped that since Kaiba wasn't actively working right now, he just might give in to his little brother.

"Quiet down, Mokuba. I've got to get back to my paperwork," Kaiba insisted. Mokuba kind of whined a little bit as Kaiba positioned a stack of papers in front of himself and clicked his pen.

Joey looked at the forlorn Mokuba. He then looked at Kaiba, somehow able to completely ignore the cute pout Mokuba was executing. Joey tapped Mokuba on the shoulder and held out his hand.

Mokuba jumped off the couch. "Seto, is it okay if Joey takes me?"

Kaiba glared up at Joey. "No."

Mokuba pouted. "Please?"

"No," Kaiba repeated. "What if some questionable street gang tries to kidnap you? I doubt Wheeler could protect you properly."

Joey wadded up a piece of paper and threw it at Kaiba. It bounced off his shoulder. Kaiba opened it up and read it. _"I used to be in a gang, moron. And who wrestled who to the floor just now?"_

Kaiba tossed the paper in the recycle bin. "Fine. If you are gone too long, I'll call security to go and get you." Mokuba trotted up to Kaiba's desk and held out his hand expectantly. Kaiba reluctantly pulled out his wallet and handed Mokuba some money. "Can I buy Joey some, too?" he asked. Kaiba turned back to his paperwork. "If you must," he replied flatly.

Joey snatched a pad of paper and a pen off of Miss Yamamoto's desk as they passed by. The two took the service elevator to the bottom floor. "Joey, were you really in a gang?" Mokuba asked.

Joey nodded. He showed the pad of paper to Mokuba. _"Its pretty nice that your bro cares about you like that. By the way, do you have any idea where we're going?"_

Mokuba grinned. "Yep! You can just follow me!" he announced, leading Joey out the doors of Kaiba Corp and down the street.

"Not to be nosy, but how come you guys were on the floor?" Mokuba asked cautiously. Joey scribbled on his paper.

"_I called him a nasty whore and we got into a fight. I tackled him."_

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "But he was on top," he simply stated.

Joey scribbled furiously. _"I pinned him first!"_

Mokuba didn't really believe Joey. "By the way, hey! What did you call my big brother a nasty whore for?" Hearing Mokuba say the word "whore" was an interesting experience.

"_Doesn't he sleep with like, the whole office building?"_

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Just cause all the ladies and a few of the guys want a piece of my brother doesn't mean they actually GET any," he expressed this with the indication that it should be obvious.

"_Not even Miss Yamamoto?"_

"Nope," replied Mokuba. Joey saw a Kaiba-esque smirk dart across his lips. "The only person Seto has ever been on top of in his office is you." Mokuba looked up and tapped his chin innocently. "Hmmm…for that matter, you're the only one that's pinned him down in his office….its good for him to be dominated once in a while, you should-" Mokuba was cut off by Joey shoving the pad of paper in his face.

"_I'M GOING TO THROW UP ON YOU."_

"Hey look, we're here!" Mokuba said, opening the door to the ice cream shop. Joey frowned and stalked in after him. Mokuba got as many scoops as could fit on a cone. Joey got three scoops of Gold Medal Ribbon.

"_What about your bro?"_

Mokuba pondered and got Kaiba one scoop on a sugar cone. He handed the guy the money in exchange for the cone. He guy made a face and tried to hand it back. "Sorry kid, we don't take large bills. Got anything smaller?"

"Uhhhh…." Mokuba replied. Joey grabbed the money back. A hundred dollar bill?! Was this the smallest Kaiba had in his wallet? Way to be snobby and rich.

Joey stuck the bill in his pocket and pulled out his wallet to pay. Luckily, he had just enough money on him.

"Sorry, Joey," Mokuba said as they made their way out of the ice cream place. Joey just shrugged.

With his hands full, Joey couldn't write on his paper, so Mokuba tried to only ask him yes or no questions.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Joey?" Joey shook his head.

"Seto should get one. I bet he'd be less cranky. I bet he'd stop locking the snack cabinet."

Joey just raised his eyebrows and licked his Gold Medal Ribbon.

"Do you think I'm cool?"

Joey smiled at him and nodded. Mokuba was pretty cool for somehow being related to Kaiba.

"So do you think Kaiba Corp is cool?" Mokuba asked, devouring a scoop of ice cream.

Joey shook his head furiously. He thought Kaiba Corp totally blew chunks.

"Do you think that Seto is cool?"

Joey continued to shake his head.

"Do you hate him?"

Joey paused for a moment, licking his cone in thought. He shook his head slowly.

"Do you like him?"

Joey refrained from answering. He bit into his ice cream cone to avoid the question as they entered the service elevator.

"Hmmm…" was all Mokuba said as they opened the door to Kaiba's office.

"You trying to cheat, mutt?" Kaiba asked immediately, not looking up from his paperwork. He held up the necklace that Joey had thrown at him earlier. Joey patted his chest. Oh right. He hadn't put it back on. Dangit! He could have spoken the whole time and Kaiba wouldn't have known unless Mokuba tattled.

"He didn't say anything," Mokuba informed his brother, handing him the ice cream cone. Kaiba stared at it for a minute, and decided to accept it.

Joey placed the hundred dollar bill on Kaiba's desk. "What's this?" he asked, skeptically.

"It was too big. They wouldn't take it. So Joey paid instead," Mokuba informed him, seating himself on the couch. Joey sat down in one of the chairs at Kaiba's desk, thinking about Mokuba's last question.

Kaiba erased the content of one of his media cards so he could place it in Joey's necklace. As he waited for it to erase, he watched Joey lick at his Gold Medal Ribbon. Joey stared up at the ceiling with his newly acquired black eye like something interesting was there.

"Its melting, Seto," Mokuba informed him casually. Kaiba quickly lapped up the chocolate that he hadn't noticed drip down his hand as he spaced out.

Mokuba snickered. He very well noticed most everything.

Kaiba threw Joey's necklace back at him. "Go home already, mutt," he said, sticking his mouth over his entire cone and sucking as he scanned more of his paperwork. Joey just kind of sat there, staring at Kaiba. Mokuba snickered again, and Joey put the necklace on, tossing his pad of paper in front of Kaiba.

"_You go home."_

He gave Mokuba a _"I know you're up to something" _look before leaving the CEO's office.


	6. Day Five

-1DAY FIVE: Friday

Yugi shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The tension in the classroom seemed to be slightly suffocating. Joey had left his sunshine he usually brought to school at home, and it was almost as if dark clouds were sitting over his desk.

Kaiba trudged in the room and glared around, giving a look that suggested that if anyone dared to speak a word to him, he would immediately have them assassinated. He had stayed very late at the office last night, to the point where Mokuba had gone to sleep on the couch, and now he was tired and cranky.

Yugi leaned over to where Tristan sat. "Hey. Do you think that something bad happened?"

Tristan gave Yugi a look. "With those two, when does something bad NOT happen?" he responded, taking Joey's purple and blue eye into account.

"I'm worried about Joey," Yugi stated. "I'm gonna try to talk to him at lunch." Tristan shrugged. He didn't seem to think that it was really worth the effort. Joey would be fine in a minute.

Yugi sought out Joey during lunch. It was strange enough that he actually had to look for him. Joey was found out in the courtyard, sandwich in hand. He appeared to be spacing off, holding the sandwich a mere inch from his mouth, though he hadn't actually taken a bite from it.

"Hey Joey," Yugi said, seating himself beside him. He handed Joey a brownie wrapped in plastic wrap. "Tea made brownies last night. Want one?"

Joey just shook his head and attempted to take a bite of his sandwich. He sighed and gave up, sticking it back in its Tupperware container.

Yugi shuffled his feet in dismay. He knew something was up if Joey wasn't eating. Joey LOVED eating, and Tea made some seriously good brownies.

"Wanna tell me what's up?" Yugi asked. Joey gave him a look that said _"Nice try" _and pointed to his necklace.

"C'mon Joey, forget the bet if this is something important-" Yugi tried to talk a little bit of sense into him, but Joey stood up and waved at him, mouthing the words _"Sorry, Yug," _before he walked away across the courtyard.

Yugi sighed and unwrapped his brownie, looking down at his Millennium Puzzle. "Was it a bad idea to bother him?" he asked Yami.

Yami's voice echoed through his head, telling him he did the right thing, and that now he should just enjoy that brownie.

Kaiba hunted down Joey after school. He was a hundred percent ready to go to his office, act like he was working on a secret project, and sleep on the couch. Kaiba was pretty strict when it came to his work, but he also knew how to properly slack without consequences.

"Wheeler, I have something to discuss with you," Kaiba said, approaching the locker that Joey was standing in front of. Joey closed the door and stared at him, his face requesting to be quick about whatever it was.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kaiba asked, holding up his MP3 player. Joey put one of the earpieces inside his ear and listened.

It was his voice coming across the speaker. "Hey, Yug! Over here!" he laughed on the recording. "Yeah! Right there. Cool, now watch as I awe you with my skills! C'mon, I meant to do that. Tristan, what the heck! Give that back! I'm the master of the barbeque! Only the manliest man here can do it, and that's obviously gotta be me!"

Joey's face fell and he pulled the earpiece out and handed it back to Kaiba.

"Is this proof that you've lost, mutt?" Joey clicked his pen and pulled his notebook out.

"_I was watching a video of our trip to Tristan's cabin last summer. Anything else?"_

Kaiba frowned at him. Joey was being rather calm. Kaiba pulled out his wallet. "I'm going to pay you back for last night. How much?"

Joey made a face. He held his notebook up to Kaiba. _"Forget it. You're making me sound like your hooker."_

Kaiba put his wallet away. He reached out and popped the media card out of Joey's necklace, replacing it. He admitted he was sort of disappointed in the passivity of this confrontation. Joey gave a pathetic little wave and walked off with his hands in his pockets.

Upon arriving at Kaiba Corp after school, Mokuba walked in to see his big brother lying on his leather sofa, asleep.

He peeked his head back out the door. "No more business today, Miss Yamamoto," he told the secretary. Miss Yamamoto gave him a thumbs up.

Mokuba sat down in Kaiba's big office chair and spun around a couple of times, barely suppressing a "Wheee!" He browsed the files on his brother's computer and ended up clicking on some of the sound files from last night and this morning.

The muffled voice of Serenity came over the speakers. "Joey? You haven't been returning my calls. Did I do something wrong? If you get this message, please call me. I miss you and I'm worried. I'll call you again tomorrow."

Mokuba frowned. So Joey's sister thought that he wasn't returning her calls. "That's rough," Mokuba muttered. He clicked around some more and quickly turned the sound down as Joey's father's gruff voice blared through the speakers.

"What's the matter, Joey? I don't understand you lately. You one of those emo kids now? Don't you start with that gang stuff again. Are you into drugs or booze or something? Hey! I said answer me, boy! Why this silent treatment? I know I ain't your Ma, but I'm tryin' best I can to raise you. How can I do this if you won't talk to me? Joey!"

Mokuba made a sad face. "Poor Joey," he muttered. He clicked on Joey's file, hoping he would at least have had an amusing dream again like last night.

Joey was heard thrashing around his bed. "Yug! Yug! Don't take him! Whaddaya mean, shave him bald? Don't you realize how short he'd become?" he made a bunch of grunting noises. "Down here. Hey! Hey, can't you hear me! C'mon, down here! Yugi! Tristan!" Joey sounded like he was running a marathon, his fast paced breathing broken only by the occasional frantic words such as "stop" and "no".

Mokuba was listening intently to Joey's nightmares, his desperate pleas to be heard by a would-be rescuer, fists unintentionally clamped onto the armrests of Kaiba's office chair.

"Mokuba," came Kaiba's voice from the vicinity of the couch and the little kid jumped a mile high, squeaking in surprise. "S-S-Seto! You were awake!" he laughed nervously, realizing that he was sitting at Kaiba's desk still. He slipped out of the chair. "Um, how long were you awake?"

Kaiba was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow, head on hand. His tie was falling off and his hair mussed slightly. "Since you walked in," he responded.

Mokuba shuffled his feet, not sure what to say. He hoped that he wasn't about to be grounded for playing with Kaiba's computer.

"Mokuba, come over here," Kaiba instructed. Mokuba shuffled over to where his brother was lying. Kaiba shifted his hips back so that there was a spot for Mokuba to sit down.

His little brother picked up the hint and plopped down on the couch. "Am I grounded? Banned from playing Kingdom Hearts? Not allowed to download AMV's for a week? What?"

"You're not in trouble, Mokuba." Kaiba rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Mokuba played his cards carefully. "So you heard this recording, too." he said.

Kaiba nodded.

"Did you see Joey at school today?" Mokuba inquired.

Kaiba nodded again.

"And he looked a little…." Mokuba prompted.

"…elsewhere," Kaiba filled in. He looked straight at Mokuba. "You said something strange to him."

"Did not!" Mokuba defended himself.

"Mokuba," Kaiba said sternly.

Mokuba looked at the ceiling and brought his hand up to his face. Kaiba knew his brother well enough to know he was about to make a cheeky remark.

"I only suggested that it would be good for you to be forced into submission once in a while-"

"Mokuba!" Kaiba couldn't actually believe what his little brother was saying to him. When did Mokuba learn those kind of terms?

"-and told him that he was welcome to come to your office anytime to hold you down and-"

"MOKUBA! That's quite enough!" Kaiba said, sitting up.

"Well he didn't say no…" Mokuba muttered under his breath. Obviously, Kaiba heard him.

"For your information, if any things of….questionable nature were to transpire in my office, I would most definitely NOT be on the bottom," Kaiba assured his little brother.

"You have a huge ego," Mokuba said, punching his brother in the arm.

Kaiba half-smiled. "I have a lot of huge things, Mokuba. What's your point?"

Mokuba poked his index fingers together. "Well, I was thinking….that maybe you should give Joey a break…"

"You want me to give up the bet?" Kaiba asked.

Mokuba nodded.

"I can't do that, Mokuba," Kaiba said, lying back down.

"Why not? Cause it would bruise your pride? C'mon Seto," Mokuba pleaded.

Kaiba put his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. "Think about it Mokuba. Do you think Wheeler would just ACCEPT calling off the bet? He's a moron. He'd take it as a insult."

Mokuba folded his arms. "Hmmm. So you're both just stubborn."

Kaiba opened one of his eyes. "Give it a rest, Mokuba. Or no snack cabinet for a week."

Mokuba leaned back against his brother and kept his mouth shut.


	7. Day Six

-1DAY SIX: Saturday

Joey's alarm clock went off at its usual time in the morning. He awakened, remembering all the things that had been on his mind last night in one huge rush. Joey lay back down, hitting the snooze.

Joey rolled over in his bed. His body was still tense from the night's onslaught of dreams, not to mention an entire week's full of suppressed emotions . He briefly remembered Kaiba's words from yesterday. _"Satisfied your violent urges yet?" _

Joey rubbed his face in his pillow and growled. _"No! Maybe if you'd have let me hit you!" _he thought angrily. _"Or at least let me keep you pinned down for a while longer." _He tried to rub the redness off his face by burying it into his pillow.

His alarm clock went off again and he threw it against the wall. If he got up now, he'd have to face his Dad again. Joey's head started to pound and he decided that the day was better spent asleep.

Kaiba clicked his pen in an irritated fashion. He continued to glance at Joey's empty desk throughout their short school day. Where was the mutt? He had a media card waiting in his pocket that needed to go in Joey's necklace.

Kaiba approached the nerd herd after their half day. "Where's Wheeler?" he asked, directing his question towards Yugi.

"I think he's home sick today," Yugi replied.

"How would you know that?" Tristan asked skeptically.

Yugi held up his cell phone. "He called and left a voicemail of him coughing into the phone."

"How innovative," Kaiba commented, turning on his heel and stalking away.

Kaiba commanded his limo driver to find out where Joey's apartment was located. He looked out the window as they drove the opposite direction of what he knew to be the ritzy part of town. Several apartment buildings huddled on the corners of the residential streets. The limo stopped in front of a short, pinkish colored building with a name that tried to make it appear bright, happy, and appealing.

Kaiba stepped out of the limo and consulted the driver. "Apartment 6," the driver informed him. Kaiba nodded and waved the driver away, saying he would call later for a ride home.

Kaiba flipped open his cell phone as he entered the building, dialing Mokuba's number.

"Hey," Mokuba answered.

"I've had to make a stop at Wheeler's….place of residence," he informed Mokuba. One could hardly call this place a house. "He didn't attend school today."

"Oh. Are you worried about him?" Mokuba asked.

Kaiba frowned at the phone. "No, Mokuba. I have to change the media card or it will run out of space."

"Okay," Mokuba responded in an unconvinced tone. "Call me when you're on your way home."

Kaiba stood in front of the door to Apartment 6. He knocked several times, and when he received no answer, tried the knob. It was unlocked. Kaiba decided to let himself inside. He seemed to remember that Joey lived with just his Dad, who was probably out at the moment.

Kaiba closed the front door behind him, and surveyed the Wheeler's dimly lit apartment. Joey was nowhere in sight. The place was fairly clean, for the fact that it housed two males. Nothing smelled funny and there was no old food, garbage, or dirty laundry all over the place like Kaiba had seen apartments portrayed in the movies.

Kaiba pushed his shoes off and draped his coat over the back of the living room couch. Now, to ascertain where Joey was at. Down the small hallway there were three doors. Joey's room was rather obviously the one with the Red Eyes Black Dragon poster tacked to the front.

Kaiba politely knocked. After a few minutes, the door was opened to reveal Joey. He slouched terribly, not bothering to wear anything more than a pair of pajama bottoms. His hair was twice the atrocious mess it usually was, and his eyes were half closed as he stared at Kaiba, wondering with all his brain cells what he was doing there.

There was some staring on both their parts before Joey opened his door wider and shuffled back to his bed to sit down. Kaiba took it as an invitation to enter. Joey's room was less than clean, but it once again wasn't the overwhelming mess that he expected. Joey sat cross-legged on his bed, head practically in his lap.

"Are you sick?" Kaiba asked bluntly.

Joey nodded weakly. He leaned over and groped at his desk for a pad of paper and a pen. Very slowly he started to write on it. Kaiba noticed his hand was shaking slightly. He pulled up Joey's desk chair beside his bed and sat down to wait.

Eventually, Joey handed him the pad of paper. _"Why are you here?"_

Kaiba dug the media card out of his pocket and held it out to Joey. Joey took it and popped the other card out, replacing it with the new one. He handed the old one back to Kaiba and picked up the pad of paper.

He showed it to Kaiba a second later. _"Every muscle in my body aches. And my head."_

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "What do you expect? With the amount of rabid yelling and fighting you've been suppressing, I'm not surprised." he stood up in an attempt to leave. "You should have seen this coming when you decided on this bet."

Joey groped at his desk again, finally choosing a small book and holding it out to Kaiba.

"What's this?" Kaiba asked. Joey obviously didn't answer and flopped back down onto his bed.

Kaiba opened the book to page one. It had "Day One" written on it and the following:

"_Today is day one of the bet. I'm supposed to stay silent for a week, and so Tea suggested that I keep this journal thing to let out my uh……feelings? It sounds too girly to me. I can very well let out my feelings to myself, whatever they are._

_BY THE WAY KAIBA'S STUPID FACE IS GOING TO LOSE."_

"You kept a journal? Really lame, Wheeler," Kaiba commented, flipping the page. The entries got increasingly more angry. One full page was filled with the words _"Kaiba sucks", _another with _"I hate Kaiba". _There was a full two page spread of every swear word that Joey could think of, written in red sharpie.

The last entry was marked as day four. It was a very short entry.

"_Mokuba is a conniving sneak. I don't know how to answer that."_

Kaiba placed the book back on Joey's desk. "Mokuba is quite the mastermind, isn't he?" at least Kaiba wasn't the only one who saw Mokuba for what he really was.

Kaiba noticed that Joey's face was becoming increasingly red. He'd taken care of Mokuba a few times when he was sick, and knew well enough that this wasn't a good sign. "Are you actually alright?" he asked Joey warily.

Joey didn't move. He focused on breathing to try to reduce the throbbing in his head. He felt Kaiba's hand push up his bangs and rest on his forehead. He weakly tried to bat it away, though admittedly the skin on Kaiba's hand was much cooler than the skin on Joey's forehead, and it was okay if he left it there for a while.

"How convenient of you to develop a fever just as I was about to leave," Kaiba said, standing up from his seat.

Joey turned on his side and scrunched his body up. His face felt as if it were on fire, and just thinking about the fact that the fever wasn't the only reason it was so red, made him heat up even more. Joey wanted Kaiba to leave, not to see him in such a pathetic state. Joey also wanted him to stay, for the sole reason (he convinced himself, anyway) that there was no one else to take care of him right now. He silently thanked Kaiba for making it possible for him to withhold expressing his thoughts.

Once Kaiba had gone, Joey rolled back over onto his back and spread his arms wide, wishing he had the strength to open the window, turn on the fan, anything. Just as he was starting to tug at the elastic of his pajama pants to rid himself of any pieces of unnecessary clothing, he felt a hand brushing back his bangs again, and the sudden shock of a cold, wet washcloth on his forehead. His entire body shivered in reaction.

"Don't go getting any more naked while I'm still around," Kaiba muttered, sitting back down in Joey's desk chair. He forced his eyes to focus on Joey's face, and not where his hand still attempted to push the waistband of his pajama pants down.

After a moment, Kaiba couldn't take it anymore and reached down to bat Joey's hand away, but stopped when he realized what he was doing. With an annoyed sigh, he knelt on the edge of Joey's bed and leaned over him to pull open the window.

Joey gave a sigh of relief and stopped trying to further strip himself. He could feel the water from the washcloth running down his cheeks and dripping into his hair. It had already lost its bite. He'd rather Kaiba had stuck an icepack on his forehead.

Kaiba took the washcloth and left for what felt like at least an hour to Joey. _"What's he still doin' here?" _he thought to himself, opening his eyes halfway and staring at the ceiling. Joey struggled to sit up. _"I gotta tell him to go home. I can't have him takin' care of me like this, he'll never let me hear the end of it! Pad of paper, where did you go?"_

Kaiba's voice came from just outside the door. "It'll be a little while longer before his fever breaks….What?! No, I'm not being…detained. Mokuba, tonight you and I will be having a little talk about how you're coming up with these farfetched ideas of yours." Kaiba gave an irritated little sigh, lowering his voice. "Thanks Mokuba, I appreciate that you've recognized that I have a heart." He snapped his cell phone shut and walked into Joey's room.

Joey appeared to be looking around his room for something. Kaiba rolled his eyes at the fact that he was even sitting up. Kaiba sat back down in the desk chair and handed a glass of water to Joey. "Drink this while I think of a good way to make you sweat."

Joey choked on the water and coughed. Kaiba narrowed his eyebrows. "You're as bad as Mokuba," he stated, stalking out of the room again.

Joey downed the glass of water in two seconds flat. Kaiba returned with another, and a fresh washcloth. "Lay back down. I won't take responsibility if you die," Kaiba commanded. Joey anticipated the cold cloth on his face and obeyed immediately.

"Good boy," Kaiba muttered with a smirk, and Joey growled.

Kaiba quietly closed the front door to his mansion. He glanced at his watch in the dim light as he padded up the stairs. Ugh, he was barely able to get home early enough to keep his visit to Joey out of the sleepover category.

Mokuba wasn't the kind to let Kaiba off the hook so easily. He intercepted his big brother at the top of the stairs. Mokuba's short stature and yellow cupcake pajamas weren't exactly intimidating.

"You're kinda late," Mokuba pointed out.

"Save it, squirt," Kaiba said, shuffling down the hall to his bedroom door. Mokuba hesitated; his big brother hadn't called him such a little kid name for quite some time.

He followed Kaiba down the hallway. "How's Joey?" he inquired.

"He'll be fine. No one is more stubborn than he is," Kaiba responded.

"I can think of someone who comes pretty close," Mokuba replied.

"Goodnight, Mokuba," Kaiba said, closing the door to his room behind him.

Mokuba stifled a giggle as he ran down the hall to his own bedroom.


	8. Day Seven

-1DAY SEVEN: Sunday

Kaiba tapped away at the keys on his laptop, as Mokuba lie on his stomach on the leather couch, watching TV.

"Big brother, what's the mile high club?" he asked, absently.

Kaiba didn't look up from his laptop. "When you're older, Mokuba," he responded flatly.

Mokuba kicked his feet up and down, quiet for a few minutes.

"Seto, what's a Sherpa?" Mokuba asked.

Kaiba tapped away. "When you're older, Mokuba."

There was a long pause. "Kay, I'm older. Tell me now?" he rolled over onto his side and sat up.

Kaiba stopped typing for a second and looked up at Mokuba. "You already know a frightening amount of things that kids your age should never-"

"Hey, what are these?!" Mokuba interrupted, sliding off the couch and snatching up what looked like a pair of tickets lying on Kaiba's desk.

"A couple of Domino Dashers tickets. A client dropped them off today and told me to enjoy them tonight," Kaiba informed his little brother.

Mokuba hopped back onto the couch, inspecting the tickets. "Cool, a baseball game! Wow, these are really nice seats, too! Lets go, Seto!"

Kaiba shot Mokuba a look that zapped the little kids smile off his face. "As if I have time for a silly sports game," Kaiba shot down the idea quickly. "I have work to do."

"Why not? Seto, you're boring," Mokuba complained. He stared at the Dashers tickets forlornly for a little while, wondering why his brother was so lame sometimes. A tiny smile crossed his face.

"Well, if YOU don't want to go…can I have these tickets then?" Mokuba asked, digging his cell phone out of his pocket.

Kaiba slowed his typing and emphasized his words. "If you're thinking about calling one of your friends from school, the answer is no. I won't let you go with someone that I don't know can protect you."

Mokuba flipped open his phone and started to dial. "Then you should have no problem if I go with Joey, since he's already proven he can look out for me!"

Kaiba stopped typing and eyed his brother suspiciously. That manipulative little…! He went back to his computer. Well, if Mokuba wanted to spend his evening with Wheeler, that was his decision. He'd already said no, he couldn't take it back now.

"Hey Joey, its Mokuba. I know you can't answer, but I got two tickets to the Dashers game tonight, and Seto is being an introvert and doesn't want to take me. If you wanna go, call my cell phone back, and I'll get a driver to bring me over to your place." He clapped his phone shut and waited.

"_I'm not an introvert,"_ Kaiba thought to himself. _"Work over pleasure, that's all. Where did he even learn that word?"_

Mokuba's phone buzzed. It flashed "Joey Wheeler" across the little screen on the front. "Yay!" Mokuba said, shoving the tickets in his pocket and hopping off the couch. He approached Kaiba's desk and held out his hand expectantly.

Kaiba pulled out his wallet and gave Mokuba some money, smaller bills this time. He also handed him Joey's last media card. Kaiba watched his little brother dash out the door excitedly.

Once Mokuba was gone, Kaiba closed the lid to his laptop. The idea of Mokuba having fun all night with Joey put him well out of the mood to work. Maybe he'd just go relax at home for the rest of the night. By himself.

"_I'm not an introvert,"_ he thought grumpily, turning off the light to his office and locking the door.

Joey scarfed down the last of the hot pocket he was eating just as there was a knock at the door. He pulled it open to see Mokuba standing there.

"Hey! Ready to go?" Mokuba asked with a bright smile. Joey held up his finger to signal he needed a minute and disappeared down the hall. He came back with an old Dashers cap he'd found in his room. It was too small for his head now, but he plopped it on top of Mokuba's black mess of hair. Eh, good enough.

"Cool. Oh, and this is from Seto," he handed Joey the new card. Joey switched media cards and handed Mokuba the old one.

They were off to the game in no time. It was Joey's first time riding in a limo, it was kinda cool. He attempted to check out the doohickies inside, being extra careful not to break anything.

When they were a few minutes out, Joey pulled a small pad of paper from his jacket and a click-it sharpie. He wrote something on it and showed it to Mokuba.

"_You should tell the driver to drop us off a few blocks from the stadium."_

Mokuba raised one eyebrow. "How come? We'd just have to walk all the way there."

Joey frowned a little. _"Rolling up to a stadium in the middle of the city in a limo is just asking to be mugged," _he had written. Usually it would have been fine, but Joey wanted to play it extra safe for Mokuba's sake.

Mokuba shrugged and told the driver to stop. "He says to just call him when we want to be picked up," Mokuba told Joey as they got out and began to walk to the stadium.

"I've never been to a baseball game before," Mokuba said. "Its kinda exciting!"

Joey gave Mokuba a surprised look. Kaiba had never even taken him to a baseball game? Geeze, that guy needed some serious guidance in the "how to be an older brother" department. Joey had even taken Serenity to sports games once or twice, not to mention gone to her girly ballet or opera with her a few times.

Joey held his pad of paper out to Mokuba. _"Don't worry, I'll show you the real ballgame experience. And it starts with a hotdog."_

Mokuba rubbed his tummy. "I'm liking it already."

Joey and Mokuba had a pretty exciting night at the ballpark, eating overpriced stadium food (Who cares if a candy bar costs four dollars? Kaiba was paying, anyway.), cheering, waving, and yelling at the players (No actual word usage on Joey's part, of course.), doing the wave and trying to make silly faces to get on the big screen. At the end of the night, Dashers had won twelve to seven, and Mokuba and Joey filed out of the stadium with the rest of the baseball fans.

There was a loud, rambunctious after game tailgate party going on in one of the parking lots, so Joey opted to steer clear. In the masses of fans that were taking the short walk to their cars, neither Joey nor Mokuba noticed the two large men that were walking but a few feet behind them. As the people thinned out, the two men became three men and fell further behind Joey and Mokuba.

Mokuba was adamantly talking about a double play in the fourth inning that was really cool, when Joey put a hand on his back and pushed him slightly, urging him to walk faster. Mokuba thought nothing of it, figuring Joey just didn't want him to walk so slowly.

"I can't believe the people who painted their whole chests! I would never do something that weird," Mokuba paused his yammering for a minute and noticed they were cutting through a rather empty backstreet. It was pretty dark out, and Mokuba didn't recognize this as the way they came.

Joey urged Mokuba to walk a little faster once again, and steered him to cut across a deserted parking lot. Mokuba gave a confused look and glanced over his shoulder. He saw the three men from the crowd earlier on the other side of the lot.

"Where are we going?" Mokuba asked, as Joey directed him down a small alleyway. Obviously, Joey didn't answer. He turned to Mokuba and put his finger to his lips.

Mokuba glanced behind him again, and saw the guys entering the alley just as he and Joey exited.

Mokuba's eyes widened, his heart beginning to beat a little faster. "Do you think those guys are following us?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Joey nodded, quickening their pace even more. He pulled out his pad of paper and scribbled on it quickly.

"_See that alley up ahead? Let's go into it. Once you're out, run left, and into the next alley on the left. Hide behind the dumpster. I'm going to go straight and try to lead them off. You call the car, and I'll come back to get you. When I push you in front of me, run."_

Mokuba grabbed hold of Joey's arm. He understood the instructions, but the idea of being left alone kind of scared him. Especially when he wasn't sure what was going to happen to Joey. Still, he couldn't be chicken if this was going to work out.

Joey looked straight at Mokuba, to make sure he knew what he was to do. Mokuba swallowed his fear and nodded. Joey pushed Mokuba in front of him and they both took off running.

The stalkers rounded the corner just as Mokuba ducked into the alley. "Oi! They're runnin' away!" one of them shouted, and Joey glanced back to see the three men take off after him. Crap, they were kind of faster than Joey thought they would be. Joey rounded the corner and took a shortcut. He had to ditch them soon, the idea of leaving Mokuba crouched behind a dumpster did not set easy with him.

Mokuba ran as fast as his short legs could make him go, fumbling for his phone in his pocket. Upon extraction, he dropped it on the pavement with a nasty smack. Mokuba skidded to a stop and went back for the phone, hoping with everything he had that he wouldn't see a man three times his size coming at him.

There was no one on the other side of the alley, and Mokuba burst out into the empty street a minute later, veering left as Joey had told him. He dashed into the next alley, searching around for the dumpster and ducking behind it. Mokuba crouched low, and tried to catch his breath. His chest burned a little from over exertion, and he quickly dialed his phone. "Hey look," he said urgently into the phone, between breaths, "we're being chased by some guys so you gotta come get us! I'm behind this dumpster at…at," Crap. Mokuba was so focused on getting away, he didn't stop to look at any street signs.

"At where, Sir?" the man on the line prompted.

"I don't know! I can't see the sign…Crap, its so dark…" Mokuba said, a bit of panic creeping into his voice.

"Don't worry, Sir. Turn on the GPS on your phone and we will locate you as fast as possible," the man assured him.

"Just hurry," Mokuba replied. "And, don't tell Seto about this," he added, hanging up. He turned his GPS on and shoved the phone back into his pocket.

Mokuba pulled his knees as close to him as possible and rested his back against the brick wall. The alley had no streetlights in it, so he couldn't see anything to his left, and only the dumpster to his right. Mokuba tried to quiet his breathing to just above a whisper, though he was sure that his deafening heartbeat was a dead giveaway. The only other noise he could hear was the wind pushing old newspapers through the alleyway, and a cat mewing in the distance. Mokuba closed his eyes and waited. "Joey, please come soon."

Joey was starting to lose feeling in his legs. It had been a long time since he'd run so fast for so long. He knew in his head he had to make it back around to where Mokuba was hiding. His vague plan was to lose the guys long enough to grab Mokuba, jump in the car, and drive off to safety.

Joey ducked into an alley, upsetting a garbage can or two in hope of delaying his pursuers. He was rewarded with a bit of cursing, and what sounded like the violent kicking of the downed trash cans as the men lumbered through the alleyway.

Joey listened to the thud of his shoes on the pavement and the men yelling, "C'mon! C'mon! Let 'im loose!" behind him. He chanced a look over his shoulder and almost tripped over his own legs. One of the men had disappeared and been replaced with a faster, more nasty looking pursuer that made Joey pick up the pace.

"_Oh shit," _he thought, _"They have a dog."_

The spitting, snarling, one eyed Rottweiler closed in on Joey faster than he expected. The huge beast took a flying leap and tackled him to the ground, his body hitting the street with a loud _smack_. Joey felt the knee of his jeans rip, and skin scrape off onto the pavement. The Rottweiler's mouth dripped slime all over his body as it tore at his clothes, strong jaws snapping at Joey's flailing limbs. Joey kicked at the dog as it clawed at his face, barely missing his left eye.

Joey finally freed himself by kicking the dog as hard as he could in the stomach. He scrambled to his feet, allowing his heightened flow of endorphins to mask any pain he was feeling. Joey rounded the corner, scrambling up the fire escape on the outside of an old apartment building. The Rottweiler had somehow latched onto his pants, tearing the fabric like it was a scrap of tasty meat. Joey kicked it in the face and scrambled up the fire escape. The dog barked incessantly from the bottom, clawing at the brick wall below to try and reach it's fleeing prey.

Once on the roof of the building, Joey stopped to catch his breath. He felt bad for kicking a dog, but reminded himself that the dog had pretty much tried to kill him, and felt a little better.

Joey gave himself a once over to check his current state. His face was bleeding where the claws had dug into his skin, and he closed his left eye to prevent any blood from entering. His knee was missing a layer of skin off the top, and the teeth of the vicious dog had apparently snagged his arm a bit as well.

Taking a deep breath, Joey limped quickly to the edge of the roof, knowing that the dog, and men, had staked out all of the exits of the building. Joey continued to jump the gaps between apartment buildings until he was at least three buildings from where the men were waiting. Glancing down from the roof to gain his bearings, Joey spotted the alley that he had instructed Mokuba to hide in.

Joey clambered down the fire escape and quietly ran to Mokuba's alley. It would be a little while before the men realized he had tricked them, and he needed just that amount of time to get Mokuba and himself out of there.

Joey turned into the alley and spotted the dumpster. He refrained from calling out to Mokuba and approached the dumpster quietly.

There was no one crouched behind it. Joey looked around. This was the correct alley, right? Why hadn't Mokuba stayed put like he told him to? Worry started to collect in the pit of his stomach.

"Lookin' for this?" a gruff voice asked from the entrance to the alley. Joey whipped around and saw his worries were not unfounded. A tall, scraggly man held Mokuba tight in his grip, despite Mokuba's flailing. The boy's muffled cries echoed through the alley, suppressed by the man's hand clamped over his mouth.

That's when Joey noticed the man's other hand held a long, rusty looking knife. His heart plummeted to his stomach. The situation had just gotten several levels worse, and Joey was running out of ideas.

"_Don't lose your cool, Joey. You've been in tougher spots. Just focus on getting Mokuba outta here."_

The man brought his knife dangerously close to Mokuba, and Joey stepped forward cautiously.

"Don't move or I cut the kid," the man warned.

Joey stopped mid-step. Before he could think on what to do next, the other two stalkers materialized out of the dark alley behind him. Now he was boxed in.

"Alright, Mister Seto Kaiba, lets talk business," one of the men said close to his ear, grabbing Joey's arm and twisting it behind his back in a painful manner.

"_Hold the phone! Did he just call me Kaiba's name?" _Joey thought frantically. Mokuba began to struggle even more and emitted a series of garbled screams.

Mokuba's captor shook him and waved his knife threateningly. "Quiet shrimp, or I'll rip you a new hole," he warned. Mokuba fell silent.

The man holding Mokuba continued the negotiations. "Mister Smithson would like to make an offer that I think you'll find hard to refuse. Since we all know that Seto Kaiba is a businessman, you can simply agree to our proposal and we'll let your little brother here go unharmed. What do you say?"

Joey took a deep breath. Mokuba was used to being kidnapped, but Joey could tell that the introduction of a real weapon was frightening him.

Joey tried to calm down. He was pretty confident he could pull them out of this situation, but his inability to speak shattered his entire plan to pieces.

The man behind him twisted his arm more, and Joey yelped in pain, knowing that the man may very well break his arm any minute.

"What's the matter, Seto Kaiba? I said to speak up. Wanna make a deal or no?"

Speak up! How could he? There's no way that Joey could reach his pad of paper now. He tried to suppress the panic surging through his entire body.

The man not holding a captive waltzed over to Mokuba and grabbed his wrist, flipping open a switchblade. Mokuba squirmed.

There was a click behind Joey and he felt the barrel of a gun press against his temple.

Joey looked at Mokuba. The kid's eyes were wide, tears cascading down his cheeks.

"I suggest you get to talking or, well, this kid," he pressed the knife to Mokuba's wrist. "I'm sure he didn't need this hand anyway."

"Who's Seto Kaiba?" Joey blurted out. Screw the bet. Just, screw it.

"What?" the man holding him asked.

"You keep saying Seto Kaiba. Who the hell is he?" Joey shouted.

The man that was threatening Mokuba snapped his switchblade shut. "You've got to be kidding me," he said, kicking a nearby garbage can. It toppled over and almost hit the dog, who growled in protest.

"Check his wallet," demanded the man holding Mokuba. The guy let go of Joey's arm and felt his pockets until he found his wallet. He flipped it open and cursed, throwing it on the ground. "This ain't even the right kid." He shoved Joey violently against the brick wall, knocking the wind out of him. Joey slumped to the ground.

"What the hell happened? I thought the boss was givin' those tickets to Seto Kaiba. This ain't even the little brother, either?"

The man holding Mokuba checked his pockets, but he wasn't carrying any ID on him at all. Joey silently thanked Kaiba for refusing to let Mokuba carry a wallet.

"Maybe he gave em to someone else?" the man with the switchblade suggested.

Mokuba's assailant swore and dropped Mokuba to the ground. "Who cares, I ain't bein' paid to beat the crap outta some random kid."

"Hey guys, there's some big black cars comin'. Lets get the hell outta here," the man stuffed his gun back in his belt and urged the dog along. The three men took off down the street.

Joey crawled over to where Mokuba was sitting on the ground in shock, curled up in a little ball.

"Mokuba, look at me," Joey said softly. Mokuba's tear stained face looked up with a sniffle. Joey carefully cupped Mokuba's face in his hands. "Are you okay?"

Mokuba wiped his eyes and nodded. "You lost," he said, referring to the obvious.

"Big deal," Joey replied, helping Mokuba to his feet. Joey spotted the Dashers cap a few feet away and picked it up, brushing off the dirt. He placed it back on Mokuba's head. "That was one heck of a baseball game, eh?"

Mokuba made a little smile and two black cars screeched to a stop just outside the alley. Joey rolled his eyes. "They're a little late," he commented.

The driver rolled down his window. "Sir! Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, no thanks to you guys," Mokuba said, opening the door for Joey and helping him inside best he could. Mokuba was tempted to rant at the driver about how he was about to be fired on the spot, but decided against it. It had been a long night and it was partially his fault they couldn't get there faster, anyway.

"Just take us home," Mokuba commanded.

Kaiba sat at the bottom of the stairs, checking his watch. Wheeler was as dead as dead could be the minute they walked through that door. It was several hours past when they should be home, and Mokuba hadn't answered his cell phone at all.

Finally, Kaiba heard voices outside coming up the walkway. Mokuba's was obviously very distinguishable, but the other voice he couldn't place as relevant. Obviously, Wheeler wouldn't be speaking, correct?

The front door opened and Kaiba stood, ready to dish out punishment. His mouth merely moved without words as Joey limped into the entryway and Mokuba closed the door behind him.

"Joey, we should go to the hospital-" Mokuba started to say, but Joey cut him off.

"I'll be fine, just lemme sit down for a minute," he said. Kaiba folded his arms across his chest. It was obviously no accident that Joey had chosen to loose his tongue.

"Mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Kaiba asked. He couldn't observe much in the dim light of the hallway.

"Seto, help him into the kitchen and I'll go get the first aid kit," Mokuba ran off up the stairs.

Kaiba just stood there awkwardly for a minute. "I can help myself," Joey said, limping off in one direction. He looked back at Kaiba. "Where's the kitchen?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes and slung Joey's arm over his shoulder, dragging his body into the large kitchen and helping Joey into a chair at the table.

He could now see Joey's injuries clearly. His left eye was closed, dried blood stuck to his hair and eyelashes. His pants and knee were ripped to shreds, and his arm hung limply at his side.

Kaiba was a little taken aback. "Geeze Wheeler, what did you do to yourself? Get into a fight with a pack of wolves?"

Joey pulled the necklace off and held it out to Kaiba. "Somethin' like that."

Kaiba took the necklace hesitantly. "What's this for?"

Joey was patient with Kaiba's small run of stupidity. "Obviously the bets off. You can have your recorder back. You'll have a little work to do after listening to that."

Kaiba tried to decipher what Joey meant when Mokuba came back into the kitchen with the first aid kit.

Kaiba stopped him before he could approach Joey. "Are you okay, Mokuba?" he asked, taking the kid's shoulders and inspecting him. He didn't seem to have a scratch on him.

"I'm fine, just a little dirty. Joey protected me," Mokuba pushed past Kaiba and opened a packet of antibacterial wipes. He started cleaning Joey's knee.

"Owww," Joey whined.

Mokuba cleaned the knee thoroughly. "Oh suck it up. Where did you even get all these injuries? I didn't see the guys hit you," he asked.

"Guys? What guys?" Kaiba asked, but Joey ignored him.

"It was from that damn dog," Joey replied. He looked up at Kaiba, anticipating his comment. To Joey's surprise, Kaiba kept his mouth shut.

Mokuba put a bandage on Joey's knee and started cleaning his arm. Kaiba gave a sigh and went to the sink, wetting a washcloth.

"This is the second time I'm taking care of you this week, Wheeler," he commented, no sarcasm in his voice. He carefully pried Joey's hair off his skin and held back his bangs to clean the dried blood from his eye.

"I never asked you to. Ouch, watch it," Joey replied.

Mokuba finished with Joey's arm and stepped back, watching his big brother very carefully clean Joey's face. Joey's other eye looked off somewhere across the room.

"Lucky, it just missed your eye. Dog, right?" Kaiba asked. He held out his hand for Mokuba to give him an antibacterial wipe.

"Yeah, a big ass drooling Rottweiler with a bunch of scars, long gnarly claws and sharp teeth," he described. He winced as Kaiba dabbed the cuts with the wipe. "Owww."

"Oh shut up," Kaiba replied, taking Joey's face in his hands and blowing gently on the damaged area to ease the pain. Joey started turning red and Kaiba held his hand out to Mokuba for a band aid.

"Band aid, Mokuba," Kaiba prompted after a moment of non response form his little brother. He turned around to see Mokuba staring at them intently and looking a little bit embarrassed.

"Uhhh right," he scrambled for some band aids and shoved them at his brother. "I'm gonna um, go. Go get ready for bed," he said, scampering out of the kitchen.

Kaiba frowned at Mokuba's skittish behavior, turning back to Joey and fixing up his face.

Kaiba stood up and surveyed his work, closing the first aid kid. "Finished," he announced.

Joey was able to open his left eye and looked around, making sure his sensory organ was in working order. Seemed to function fine.

"Thanks," he muttered, standing up. He wobbled a little bit.

"You can stay here tonight, in the guest bedroom," Kaiba offered.

Joey shook his head. "I'll just walk home," he said, heading for the door.

"Don't be a moron, its late," Kaiba said, taking Joey's good arm and leading him to the stairs. "It's the least I can do for protecting Mokuba."

Joey didn't further complain and allowed Kaiba to lead him up the stairs to the guest bedroom for the night.

Kaiba opened the door for Joey and flipped the light on. Joey blinked a few times at the size of the room. It was like staying in a hotel. If this was the guest room, he briefly wondered how big Kaiba's room was in comparison.

"There's extra pajamas in the drawers," Kaiba informed him. He gave Joey a once over, hardly believing how dirty he was, "and towels if you want to shower."

Joey took it as a hint and spotted the door to the bathroom on the other side of the bed. "Thanks," he said, sitting down on the bed, bouncing a little bit.

Kaiba folded his arms across his chest. He almost said _"My room is next door if you need anything," _but decided that he needed to turn the hospitality down a little bit. "My room is next door, and Mokuba's is down the hall. Try not to bleed all over the sheets or anything," he turned and stalked out the door before Joey could say goodnight.

Joey flopped back onto the bed and sighed. His eyelids drooped, and he really just wanted to go to sleep right where he was lying, right now. He reached up and grabbed the section of his bangs that had crusted over with dried blood, and decided that a shower sure couldn't hurt. Joey grabbed the pajamas, towel, and trudged into the bathroom.

Kaiba walked quietly down the hall and knocked on Mokuba's door before opening it. The kid was sitting on his bed, hugging his knees. Kaiba entered his room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"You're sure you aren't hurt anywhere, right?" Kaiba asked, as gently as he could muster. Mokuba shook his head.

Kaiba sighed. "Good," he said.

Mokuba scooted closer to him cautiously, and after he sensed it was safe, hugged his brother around the middle. "They were really big and really mean," Mokuba said in a quiet tone. "They stalked us from the stadium and chased us down the street. I hid like Joey told me to, but they found me eventually." He squeezed Kaiba tighter, remembering the events of just a few hours ago. "They had knives, and a gun too," he murmured into Kaiba's shirt.

Kaiba wrapped his arms around Mokuba. He hadn't known just how much danger the two had been in. The idea of knives or guns being pointed at Mokuba made his blood boil inside, and also made him all the more grateful that Mokuba came home unharmed.

After a minute, Mokuba pulled away from his brother and quickly wiped his eyes. "Did Joey go home?" he asked, changing the subject.

Kaiba shook his head. "I made him stay the night."

"In your room?" Mokuba asked, the tiniest little smile creeping onto his face.

Kaiba patted Mokuba on the head. "In the guest bedroom. Don't be so nosy."

Kaiba said goodnight to Mokuba and headed back to his own room. He heard the shower running as he passed the guest bedroom. "Good, now he won't get the bedding all filthy," Kaiba mused in his head, going in his bedroom and locking the door.

Kaiba sat down at his desk and booted up his laptop, popping the media card in. Joey's words from earlier came back to him about having some work to do after listening to the file. It occurred to him that the entire encounter with Joey and Mokuba's assailants would be recorded on the card.

Kaiba began to listen to the night's recordings, skipping around to find anything interesting. He heard Mokuba's voice excitedly talking about the baseball game. Mokuba became quieter suddenly, asking where they were going and if they were being followed.

In the minutes following, Joey was breathing hard. Kaiba deduced that he was running somewhere. There was a _smack _and what sounded like Joey struggling. There was snapping and snarling recorded on the file, and Joey's grunts and cries of pain. Kaiba subconsciously bit his lip, trying to keep visions of Joey being attacked by a dog out of his head.

The next few moments were quiet until he heard the men talking. Kaiba listened intently to the conversation. "_These fools think that Wheeler is me. Mister Smithson was going to use the baseball tickets to force me into a corner and make a deal."_ He concluded in his head.

At the man's threat to cut off Mokuba's hand, Kaiba covered his mouth in disgust, a sick feeling forming in his stomach. _"Mokuba must have been utterly terrified."_

Joey finally spoke, and his two sentences pulled them out of the situation very quickly. Kaiba sat back in his computer chair with a sigh. _"And I wanted to give him a hard time for failing the bet, too."_ He lamented, kind of disappointed. Kaiba was hoping to royally humiliate Joey when he had to do everything Kaiba said for a whole week.

Kaiba shut his computer and put his pajamas on, shuffling over to his bed. He sat down and mimicked his younger brother's earlier position by drawing his knees up to his chest.

Joey got out of the shower feeling a lot better than when he had come in. Unfortunately, almost all of his band aids had gotten soggy and wet. Joey put on the pajamas and dried his hair off best he could, looking around the bathroom for a first aid kid.

Joey spotted a door on the other end of the bathroom that was not the same door he had gone in. He stared at it for a moment, wondering if it was a closet or something. Joey noticed a light was coming from under the door and this peaked his curiosity even more.

Joey tried the door and it was unlocked. He pushed it open to reveal an even bigger room than the one that he was staying in. _"How many guest rooms does this place have? And how come Kaiba gave me to little one? Jerk." _

Joey stepped through the door and looked around. His eyes fell on the bed where Kaiba was sitting cross-legged, playing solitaire. Joey took a step back. Whoops, it was actually Kaiba's bedroom. _"He said it was next door, dummy,"_ he mentally kicked himself.

"What are you doing, Wheeler?" Kaiba asked, not looking up from his card game.

Joey stood in the entryway awkwardly. "I was just lookin' for some more band aids is all," he explained, taking a step backwards into the bathroom.

Kaiba pointed to his nightstand. "There's a first aid box in that drawer," he said, still concentrating on the game.

Joey proceeded cautiously into Kaiba's room and over to his nightstand. He pulled out the first aid kit and got some band aids. "Thanks," he said, ripping one open and plastering it on his knee, another on his arm. He attempted to put one on his face, but couldn't tell where the cuts were located.

"Do you need assistance? You look like a fool," Kaiba offered, looking up from his game.

"Uhhh…" Joey replied, not wanting to ask for or admit he needed help.

Kaiba got up on his knees and snatched the band aid from Joey. "Hold still," he commanded, pasting it on Joey's face. Kaiba opened another and repeated the action.

"I listened to the recording," Kaiba mentioned, sitting back down on his bed.

Joey noticed that for some strange reason, Kaiba wasn't kicking him out of his bedroom right this second. Joey tested the waters and sat delicately on the very edge of Kaiba's bed. "Yeah? What are you gonna do about the guy?"

Kaiba lay down the last card to finish his game of solitaire. "Absolutely crush him so that he'll never be able to do business in Japan ever again," he responded as he gathered the cards and placed them on his nightstand.

Joey recoiled a little. Kaiba could be kind of scary. He was glad he wasn't planning on going into the business world when he got older. "How you gonna do that?" Joey inquired.

Kaiba stretched his arms out in front of his body. "I have my ways."

Joey sighed a defeated little sigh. "Man, I almost made it," he said, sounding disappointed. "So I gotta be your servant for a week now or what?"

Kaiba lay back on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. "Don't be an idiot. You protected Mokuba, uncovered a scandal against Kaiba Corp that could have cost me the whole company, not to mention took a rough beating and saved my ass in the process," Kaiba hated glorifying Joey in the least bit, but everything he said was completely true.

"Well," replied Joey, "Just trying to protect my property after all." He grinned cheekily at Kaiba.

"Your WHAT?!" Kaiba asked, drawing his face close to Joey's face.

Joey put his hands up. "Hey, only according to your leg," he reminded Kaiba.

Kaiba made a small growl and flopped back onto his bed. "Don't remind me of your horrible little prank. Do you know how long it took me to get that stuff off my leg? I should write with permanent marker on your face as soon as you're asleep," Kaiba threatened.

Joey changed the subject as fast as lightening. "Oh, I need to call Serenity tomorrow. She thinks I'm mad at her. And my Dad, he was pretty furious there for a while. Probably should call Yugi too. It'd be nice to talk to him."

"About what?" Kaiba asked, without thinking. Not that he actually cared what the friendship crowd talked about on a daily basis.

Joey was surprised that Kaiba even asked. "Stuff," Joey replied.

"What kind of stuff?" Kaiba asked, kind of curious now. Since when did Yugi and Joey talk about stuff that was not general public knowledge? He wondered if he found out what this stuff was, he could use it against Yugi at some point, or better yet, in a duel.

"Just regular stuff! Like duel monsters, and cars, and the type of cereal we like, and what happened on Survivor last night, and who we have a crush on, and how hard Mrs. Haggermeyersonsonly's stupid effing test was last week. Regular stuff. When you haven't been able to talk for a week, there's a lot to get out!"

Kaiba didn't get it. Most of those things were extremely pointless. "Who is it?" Kaiba asked.

Joey gave him a confused look. "Who is what?"

"The person you are interested in, who is it?" Kaiba pried.

Joey turned the tiniest bit red in the cheeks. "Like I'd tell you," he replied, showing his back to Kaiba.

"But the rest of the things sound extremely boring," Kaiba pointed out.

"Then what do you talk to your friends about?" Joey put Kaiba on the spot.

Kaiba stared up at the ceiling. "What friends?" he murmured, barely loud enough for Joey to hear.

Joey frowned, feeling bad about his unintentional jab at Kaiba's personal life.

Kaiba rolled over. He sighed, closed his eyes, and went out on a little bit of a limb for Joey. He didn't like feeling in debt to anyone, and right now he was up to his waist is debt to Joey. "If you want, you have permission to tell me about…stuff."

Joey blinked. "What?" he asked, making sure he heard correctly.

Kaiba furrowed his brow. Joey's dumbness made it more difficult to be decent to him.

Kaiba rolled over and faced Joey. "Talk about the stuff," he commanded.

Joey hesitated, but he scooted further onto the bed and lay down next to Kaiba.

"What are you doing?" Kaiba asked, sitting up abruptly and staring at Joey's invasion of his personal space.

"What?" Joey asked innocently. "You have to be COMFORTABLE to talk about stuff," Joey insisted.

Kaiba lay back down, knowing in the back of his head that he was going to regret his entire life the next morning.


	9. Day Eight

-1DAY EIGHT: Monday

Joey woke in the morning, more or less rested from yesterday's troublesome events. He wasn't sure what time it was in the least bit, but he snuggled his body deeper into the big plush bed he was in, hoping to lazily sleep away several more hours in blissful ignorance.

Joey's tired eyes glanced this way and that through a hazy morning film. Half closed, they eventually focused directly forward.

"Wuhh…?" his muddled brain said, studying the sleeping face in front of him, piecing together last nights events. Mokuba, baseball game, stalkers, dog, angry Kaiba, shower, more Kaiba, "stuff" and…oh right. He had fallen asleep amid the mindless babble somewhere between how lame the Blue Eyes was, and how great Boomer's Burgers were.

An exclamation point popped up in Joey's head. He'd fallen asleep on Kaiba's bed and the selfish guy hadn't woken him up and forced him out? In fact, judging from what Joey was seeing right now, he'd just up and went to sleep next to him. Or…had Kaiba fallen asleep before Joey did? He had been rather unresponsive…

Joey swallowed cautiously, suddenly aware of the close proximity of their faces. If Joey tilted his head only just, their noses would collide. Joey held his breath and his body stiffened. If Kaiba woke up right now, he was sure there would be less nose on nose contact and more fist on face contact happening.

Joey searched Kaiba's face for a sign that he was safely asleep, before very quietly and slowly resuming breathing. Joey closed his eyes briefly, feeling Kaiba's breath tickle his lips in even intervals. Joey's eyes opened again, and observed no movement behind Kaiba's closed lids, signifying it was safe for his heart to slow down and his body to relax.

Joey wiggled his toes, followed by his hips, and then his fingers. They were suddenly snagged and entangled by another set of fingers that he did not own. Though Joey had tucked his hands safely against his chest, apparently Kaiba had forgotten he wasn't alone in his bed and stretched his arm out in front of him. Joey squeezed his eyes tightly shut, hoping that if Kaiba did wake just now, he would kindly refrain from pulverizing someone who was innocently sleeping.

Joey felt Kaiba shift next to him and sit up. He silently chanted in his head _"I'm asleep, I'm asleep, I'm asleep," _trying to appear relaxed.

Joey heard Kaiba shuffle some more, but he kept his eyes loosely closed. He heard Kaiba sigh and mutter something to the effect of "dogs sleep at the foot of the bed." Joey refrained from making a face. He would get Kaiba back for that one later.

There was no movement for several minutes, and Joey grew impatient, sliding one eye open slowly. Kaiba was not paying attention to him. In fact, Kaiba wasn't really paying attention to anything. He sat cross-legged, still half under the covers, hands in his lap and head drooping slightly.

Joey was curious as to how long Kaiba was just going to sit there. Its not like he was looking at something in specific. After about ten minutes, Joey wondered if he had fallen asleep sitting up, but his eyes were clearly open.

Kaiba started for at least another five minutes, so long that Joey had started counting the wrinkles on the back of his pajama shirt. Finally, Kaiba pulled his body out from the covers and swung his legs over the side. He stopped there, content to stare for a while at a different side of the room before finally getting up.

"_What a weirdo," _Joey commented on Kaiba's odd morning behavior. Joey caught sight of the clock. _"Why is he up so early? Its break this week," _he wondered briefly, watching Kaiba stand in the middle of the room pointlessly, before walking as slowly as a person could manage into the bathroom.

Once Kaiba was safely out of hearing range, Joey laughed into his pillow. He usually tried to maximize his sleep by getting up at the last minute and throwing on clothing as fast as possible. It was amusing that Kaiba took so long to even function in the morning, let along become ready for the day.

After a while, Kaiba finally came out of the bathroom. He opened a drawer in his dresser and drug out a pair of pants, putting them on rather clumsily. Kaiba flung open his closet, took off his shirt, and stood there as if in a showdown with the various shirts that lived there.

"_Holy crap, not more staring,"_ Joey thought, his cheeks slightly pink with embarrassment at the thought that he had blatantly watched Kaiba change his clothes. Kaiba indeed stood there and stared. It was a good twenty minutes before he finally put something on his body. Joey made a mental note to avoid watching Kaiba's morning routine ever again. Even the "Watching Paint Dry" channel was more exciting.

Joey finally sat up in bed, bored with how slow and weird Kaiba was. "Buh," he said, expressing his morning grogginess.

Kaiba sat down on the side of the bed Joey was occupying, doing up the last button on his shirt. "It would be a wise idea to remove yourself from my bed," he suggested. "You're lucky I didn't push you off onto the floor, where dogs belong," he added with a smirk. Kaiba stood and walked over to his closet to carefully choose which tie he would like to wear today.

Joey pulled the pillow out from behind him. "I'm not a dog," he said grumpily, chucking it across the room at Kaiba. It hit him square in the back before flumping onto the floor.

Kaiba turned around, a deep frown set on his face. He picked up the pillow. "What's the meaning of this?" he asked, as if he didn't understand how Joey dared to do something so childish.

Kaiba discarded the pillow, and sat back down on the bed, beginning to tie his tie, ignoring the fact that Joey was trying to start a fight with him.

Joey didn't give up so easily. He picked up Kaiba's pillow and swung at him, barely scraping it across his turned back.

Kaiba didn't flinch, though he was fumbling with his tie in irritation. "Try it again Wheeler, and I swear I will physically damage you," he warned.

That was as good an invitation as any, and Joey couldn't imagine he'd end up worse off than he already was, so he climbed out from under the bedcovers and swung the pillow at the back of Kaiba's head.

Kaiba's hair went every which way with a loud _thwap! _He pitched forward only slightly, changing his expressionless face to a deep set frown.

He immediately turned on Joey and forcibly pinned him to the bed, much in the fashion that he had pinned him in his office earlier that week. His undone tie swung inches from Joey's face. "Why do you insist on pestering me?" he asked, eyebrows narrowed.

Joey stuck out his tongue in a childish manner. "Cause it bugs you," he responded simply.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Make up your mind, are you a bug now or a mutt?"

Joey struggled underneath Kaiba. "Neither! Why do you hafta be such a jerk?"

Kaiba leaned down until their noses almost touched. "Because it bugs you," he retorted.

"Joey, your not doing a very good job at dominating," came a voice from the doorway.

Joey watched the expression on Kaiba's face visibly change from cocky to irritated in one fell swoop. He thought he saw the tiniest hint of embarrassment in there, but it was too quick to be sure.

Kaiba turned his head to look over at Mokuba leaning against the doorway. Damn he was good! How was he always in the exact place at the exact time to know everything? His sneaky ninja skills had greatly surpassed anyone Kaiba had ever known.

Joey squirmed. "Mokuba, there's going to be physical damage!" he said, trying to get away form Kaiba. In the back of his head he futilely hoped that Mokuba would help.

"Well, obviously," Mokuba pointed out.

Kaiba growled at Mokuba, then at Joey. "Would you kindly not allude to things that would make my brother suspect there is something more going on than is actually going on?" he was aware that his sentence was not exactly as eloquent as usual.

"Did you two sleep together last night?" Mokuba asked blatantly.

Mokuba was rewarded with a horrified look from them both (Kaiba's was more a cross between disgusted and _"you are so grounded"_).

"Its not any of your business," Kaiba replied, calmly. Mokuba raised an eyebrow.

Joey thrashed. "Oh, and somehow you're allowed to imply dirty things and I'm not?!" he half shouted.

Kaiba turned back on Joey, raising his voice a bit. They were both just digging a deeper pit for themselves. "Who said there was anything dirty! Keep your mouth shut, Wheeler!"

"Make me!" Joey shouted back.

They both snarled at each other, Kaiba tentatively reaching for the pillow to smother Joey with it.

Mokuba chuckled from the doorway. "Breakfast is ready when you're done having your moment," he said, exiting the bedroom.

"Who the hell said we were having a moment?!" Joey yelled after him.

"I'm going to give you a moment of pain if you don't shut up," Kaiba said, trying to compose himself and not just kill Joey on the spot for the embarrassment he had just caused him in front of Mokuba.

Kaiba let go of Joey's hands and sat back with an irritated sigh. Joey was able to scramble up onto his elbows, though Kaiba still restricted his lower body from going anywhere.

"You're lucky that Mokuba has the decency to keep whatever he thinks is going on to himself," he told Joey.

Joey sat up as far as he could, breathing hard from his struggling and shouting. "I'm lucky? Who is the one that pinned ME down on his bed saying stuff like "physical damage"?"

Kaiba smirked. "Don't blame me for your inadequacies," he said.

"My WHAT?" Joey almost choked on his words.

Kaiba shrugged, removing himself from Joey. "Mokuba is the one that suggested that you are only capable of submission." He calmly went back to tying his tie.

Joey jumped off the bed. "I could so be on top!" he shouted, waving his fist.

Kaiba looked sideways at him. "Who said anything about being on top?"

Joey opened his mouth like he actually had a comeback, but instead a huge growl emitted from his stomach.

Kaiba gave him a surprised look. "Do you keep a monster inside there?" he asked.

Joey rubbed his stomach in despair.

Kaiba finished with his tie and stalked out the door. "You know where the kitchen is," he called out over his shoulder.

Mokuba smirked into his cereal. He himself thought it was hilarious that Joey and Kaiba tried so hard to make it look like they would rather rot forever in a prison cell than be near each other. He very much enjoyed torturing them, and very well knew that he could walk into any room they occupied at any point in time and see them doing something that could be misinterpreted. Mokuba would just smile and misinterpret it right to their faces, then walk off snickering in his own well earned self confidence.

"I can ground you for a very long time, you know," Kaiba warned Mokuba from across the breakfast table.

Mokuba smiled very innocently at him. "I know." Kaiba would never do it.

Joey shuffled into the kitchen and sat down next to Mokuba. He absently patted him on the head. "Doin' okay this morning?" he asked as Mokuba pushed a bowl in front of him and plopped the box of cereal down.

"I'm great. You?" Mokuba asked with a wider-than-necessary grin on his face. Kaiba glared at Mokuba over his newspaper in a _"don't you start something" _sort of way.

Joey looked his injuries over. They were already healing nicely. He touched his face. "Face kinda hurts still, I think I might have slept on it," he said, pouring himself some Fruity Pebblestm.

"Apparently, it's not the only thing you slept on last night," Mokuba mumbled into his bowl.

Kaiba almost spit his coffee out. He briefly wondered if tying Mokuba to a tree and mercilessly shooting him with a Nerf gun counted as child abuse. He decided that he would leave it up to Joey's discretion during what he had planned for this week.

Kaiba lowered his Newspaper and folded it neatly. Joey was still in shock from Mokuba's last comment, bowl now filled to the brim and cereal cascading all over the table.

"Wheeler, you're failing horribly," Kaiba commented. Joey panicked, and Kaiba watched him grossly stuff the colorful pieces that had fallen on the table into his mouth.

Kaiba got up to leave, tucking the newspaper into his briefcase.

"Where are you going?" Joey asked, spoon hovering halfway between the bowl and his mouth.

"People who run companies can't take breaks just because there is no school," Kaiba informed him. Joey briefly wondered what he was supposed to do once Kaiba had left.

"Aw, you have to work all week?" Mokuba complained. "What am I supposed to do?" Mokuba had break all week as well, and he didn't by any means desire to sit around by himself.

"What are you doing this week, Joey?" Mokuba asked. Joey pointed at himself like it was strange anyone should ask.

"Nuthin that I know of," he replied, licking his spoon thoughtfully. Hmmm…he had all week to sleep and sit around and be pointless. He liked that idea.

"Then stay here and watch Mokuba, since he's proved lately that he has some deep yearning to be meddlesome," Kaiba said, digging around in his briefcase. He threw an envelope on the table. "I'll even pay you, provided you don't smell up the house, track mud all over, or break anything that is worth more than your life." Kaiba set his coffee cup down and started out of the kitchen. "Put a collar on him and tie him to a tree if you have to, Mokuba," he added before leaving.

A lot of staring ensued. It started with Joey and Mokuba staring at the door that Kaiba had just walked through. Gradually, it became Joey and Mokuba staring at each other, until it escaladed into them both staring at the envelope.

"Open it," Mokuba said.

"No, you open it," Joey replied, pushing it in Mokuba's direction.

"No, I'm pretty sure he gave it to you. What if its a love letter?" Mokuba pushed it back at Joey.

Joey shoved it back at Mokuba. "Why would he give it to me? Its probably a list of your chores or something."

Mokuba picked it up and shoved it at Joey. "I don't do chores. Maids do chores." As if on cue, a maid walked in and removed their empty bowls from the table.

Joey cautiously opened the envelope and fell back into the old routine of staring. He stared at what was inside. Mokuba stared at what was inside, and together they stared at a check made out to Joey, signed by Kaiba, and in the amount of five hundred dollars.

"Oooo, he paid you a lot," Mokuba said, sipping on his orange juice.

Joey wasn't done staring. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Mokuba shrugged. "I think you're supposed to cash it, and then stay at the house all week and make sure I don't ruin anyone's lives with my wily ways."

Joey polished his bout of staring off with a disbelieving shake of his head. So, Mokuba wasn't the only Kaiba that could be a scheming mastermind. The elder brother clearly had this planned out in his head well before this morning. If this was Kaiba's way of saying _"thanks for losing the bet, and saving all our asses in the process," _and maybe a little bit of _"you're the only person I trust to take care of Mokuba," _Joey could accept that.

"What are you all smiley about?" Mokuba asked from over the rim of his juice glass.

Joey wasn't aware he was "all smiley". He looked at the check and then at Mokuba. "I think your prick of a big brother tried to be nice just now," he commented.

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "How's that? It just looks like he overpaid you to baby-sit me for no reason," Mokuba pointed out.

Joey shook his head. "Five hundred dollars and your house for a week. That was my prize."

Mokuba nodded knowingly, scraping his chair across the floor to stand up. Joey watched him inch away from the table like someone who was getting reading to make a run for it.

"Right. And with the house for a week, you can sleep in Seto's bed all you want," Mokuba casually exited the kitchen in one long stride.

Joey briefly wondered if tying Mokuba to a tree and beating him senseless with a Wiffle bat would count as child abuse.


End file.
